With straight and crooked lines

More than a year ago, one of my cousins asked whether I would be wiling to preside at her wedding. The wedding finally took place this past week. Lo and behold, it gave me the seed for this week's homily.

As promised in my blog entry from Monday of this past week, here is the link to this week's reflection which was shared with parishioners at Christ the King in Sudbury. It's available in a number of different formats, so you choose whether you want to read the text or listen to the podcast.

On the parish website, you'll also find a copy of my musings for this coming week. The column, which is published in our weekly bulletin is entitled Lines from my reading chair. I hope you enjoy them.

Will one thing

Young people and old today look for guidance when they are in trouble. When they are seeking guidance, they turn to those who they perceive to be wise, but what is it that makes heroes? What does it take to be idolized? I dare say that no person sees him-herself as one to be idolized, or to be emulated; this honour is bestowed by those who see good in us, who look to us for direction and who come to us for advise.

Saint Theresa of Lisieux, Blessed Theresa of Calcutta and the Servant of God John Paul II are three examples, from different times in history who have all lived lives of commitment to be devoted servants. Whether within the walls of a convent in Northwestern France, from the streets of one of the most populated cities in India, or from the window of his private apartment in the Vatican, these three people all strove to remain commited each day to doing the will of God.

What makes their example even more poignant is the fact that the world around them seemed to be characterized by many individuals who chose to ignore the fact that God loves each of us into existence and encourages us to share the good news of this love and acceptance with others. By contrast, many people's lives are characterized by individualism and a concern for enjoying the good things of life.

What is it that makes saints and people of commitment renounce the comforts of this world and choose instead to seek comfort and consolation in the quiet of prayer and contemplation? Perhaps we would all do well to examine the ramifications of our decisions and to devote ourselves one day at a time to living lives of radical commitment. It all begins with an act of will, and to remaining focused on willing one thing.

Connecting the dots

A few months ago, I spoke with the people who come to pray at the church where I serve as pastor. I told them that in addition to the updates that are made regularly to our parish website and the printed versions and podcasts of my homily that are available each week after the last Mass is complete, I have also been posting commentary on current literature here on this blog.

The more that I get used to the world of communication on the web, the more I am convinced that all the loops need to be closed, and all the various pieces need to be connected so that different readers who might consult different tools can also have access to other parts of the story.

Beginning this coming Sunday, I will therefore post a link here on the blog so that readers can access the weekly homilies that are preached here at Christ the King in Sudbury. In addition, I'll post a link to the weekly column that is printed in our parish bulletin. It's entitled Lines from my reading chair. You'll find 'back issues' of the homilies, podcasts and Lines, including those which were posted yesterday, on our parish website.

Shelter from the storm

George Orwell once observed, “It is curious how people take it for granted that they have the right to preach to you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level” (Down and Out in Paris and London).

The women in All Our Sisters are remarkably resourceful. They have found their own ways to live in a constantly changing world. Without an address, they cannot get a social insurance number or a job. Without a home they risk loosing their children. Our social security system has forced many to hide or to stretch the truth to maintain the few things they have. Each of the women has learned to cope in some way with what life has brought them. Most are grateful for the charity that they have found.

Some shelters are run by faith based groups doing outreach work in their communities. These groups do not pride themselves in being there to save the world, but rather in being a safe place. Many shelters offer not only a roof and a meal, but a listening ear and a caring heart. It is through the work of these shelter workers that many lives have been changed. In story after story, many women recount how they have found salvation. Many recall the moment they found God in their lives. Some have turned their lives into living examples of God’s work in this world. They themselves are now working in the missions where they sought refuge.

In these instances women were not preached over or prayed over, but rather listened to and cared for.

While we may often wonder why some lives are so difficult, perhaps these should be seen as our challenge put forward by God. How can we offer support that is more than prayers and preaching? Next time you see someone without shelter, think of what you can do to be God’s living example, to reach out and lend a hand.

Love one another

Substance use is at the heart of many stories told by the women in All Our Sisters. For some, life at home became too difficult due to the substance misuse of a parent or a loved one. For others, the substance use of their pregnant mother may have lead to a life of mental impairment, making it hard to cope with situations many of us take for granted. Yet for other women their own addiction, a physical and chemical need for substances, may have lead to the loss of home and family.

No one comes into the world or wakes up one morning and plans to become addicted. No one leaves their current surroundings with the plan of living life on the street. No woman gives birth in hopes of having her children torn from her life because a person in authority deems that she in unfit.

The homeless are people. People with dreams and with plans for a better life. They are people who need to be viewed as equals in our eyes just as they are equals in God’s eyes.

The stories told in All Our Sisters point to a need for all of society to view homelessness as an opportunity to help others in this earthly journey. We have been instructed by Jesus Christ to “love one another”. We are each gifted by God in ways that can offer support to the homeless. We have been given a great love by our God to share with others.

Visit a soup kitchen, offer to help or simply take time to sit and listen to the stories of the homeless. By sharing your time or volunteering your talents you can be a living example of God’s love in this world. You can make a difference in someone’s life.

Finding a place for everyone

Home: a place to be yourself; a place to hang pictures on the wall, to read your favorite books, to listen to music that moves your soul, or your body, when no one is watching. Some homes are huge, others tiny apartments. Some are filled with light, others need the help of a few well placed light bulbs. Some homes are full of love, some not so much.

Imagine life without a home. Picture yourself trying to fall asleep on the streets, or maybe in an alley with the noise of a big city for ambience and streetlights as night lights. If you are “lucky” you may have shelter; the couch in a friend’s apartment or a charitable shelter, sharing your sleeping quarters with strangers. Imagine needing to search nightly for a place to sleep.

Who would chose to give up the sanctuary of “home” for the life of the “homeless”?

Now imagine being homeless and being a woman. It is a societal expectation that women be the “homemaker”. Many women feel judged by how clean they keep their lodgings and how well they can prepare a meal. Women without a place to call home are doubly judged…judged that they have chosen to be homeless and that they cannot live up to expectations, not even their own dreams. Some women are made more vulnerable by histories of physical violence, drug or alcohol abuse or mental illness. For many, all three have played a role in leading to a life without a home.

In Susan Scott’s All Our Sisters: Stories of Homeless Women in Canada, we are privileged to hear the stories of Canadian women, living on the streets or in shelters, with no place to call “home”. Scott spoke with and recorded the stories of women in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario. Along with statistics and background information about homelessness and related issues, we are invited briefly into to lives of these women, to learn their histories, and share their dreams.

Many stories in scripture speak about the poor. The last shall be first in the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps in taking a little time to learn more about the homeless, we can be moved into action to bring some Kingdom of Heaven to the homeless on earth.

What's the fuss

A few months ago, I made reference to some summer reading I had done. One of the books was the final installment in the Harry Potter series. Since that time, there has been not a little hullaballoo going on over the revelation by the author J.K. Rowling that the character Dumbledore, a wizard who is head master at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry is gay.

Reaction to this news has ranged from the cheers of some to the calls for boycotting of the series by others. See for instance the articles published in the November 10, 2007 issue of ZENIT.

I'm just not so sure what all the fuss is about. Sure in former generations, the issue of sexual orientation was something to be discussed only within the walls of one's home and only with those who were most to be trusted. In fact if such news was to be laundered in public it was almost certainly an automatic sentence of death - or at least severe chastisement.

Among the younger generations of today however, sexual orientation is just another facet of getting to know someone. Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, the values of family, respect and love are the same. If everyone was so obsessed with faithfulness to commitments and living with integrity, I wonder whether the world would not be a much different place where we could actually get along with each other and dare to love.

Seek first

Only a few decades ago, parents worked hard to make sure that their children would have a better life than they themselves had enjoyed. Better is often defined as more opportunities but also as more possessions.

The result, at least in many parts of the theologically advanced nations, is that we now have an overabundance of material wealth, but we also have a consequent abject poverty in many cases when it comes to spirituality. The mere act of entering into prayer seems to be foreign to many who we meet today, and yet there seems to be an unquenchable thirst for things spiritual today.

It's almost as though we have a good idea about what we want, but we have no idea about how to attain it - especially when it comes to values other than material, tangible and visible riches. The answer is really very simple. In the words of a wise one who once walked in my life, 'You must begin each day by admitting that you are not God - that there is only one God, and you are not it'.

With a healthy relationship of coming to God with an understanding that all we have is a gift, and that our only response is to say thanks, we might well be on the way to understanding that we are not in control, and that despite our greatest wealth, we are still poor, for we are always in need of forgiveness, love, acceptance and happiness - things we cannot touch, smell, hear or see but things that make all the difference.

There is none so blind as those who will not see, so let's set aside the clutter and set out on a quest to truly seek the answer to our every need. Then perhaps, out of the darkness of abundance, we will begin to see with new eyes, and appreciate with renewed fervour the gifts that really matter.

Wake up

At one point early in the film, Luke is cleaning the robot R2-D2 when a fragment breaks loose from R2 and Luke finds himself staring at the image of Princess Leia who is pleading, 'Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi. You're my only hope'.

Similar cries for help have been heard throughout time. Even in the scriptures, there are many examples of people who come to Jesus and cry out for help because they are desperate and in need of help. Curiously though, Jesus is not always able to help. There are episodes in the scriptures that speak of his inability to perform miracles.

Miracles and curing are for Jesus, moments to reveal the plan of the Father, and to invite the pilgrim to embark on a journey, but the sick must first want to be healed - to wake up and realize that they are in need of help. The same is true for us. We must first be aware that we are asleep, blind, spiritually dead or in bondage before we can even ask to be healed.

To what must we become aware today? How are we being invited to 'wake up' and realize the great love that awaits us, and the precious gift that is being offered by our God? Are we willing to realize our need for God? Are we willing to call out for help, and to trust that he can heal us?

Do, or do not. There is no try.

As part of Luke Skywalker's training, Yoda challenges him to lift an X-wing fighter from the swamp by 'using the Force'. Faced with what he perceives as an impossible task, Luke is more than skeptical, but Yoda encourages him saying, '... try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.'

Life provides us with many opportunities to try things, without committing ourselves wholeheartedly: we try on clothes, we try a new shampoo, we test drive a car - in all these cases, if we are not satisfied with the results, we don't have to commit to them; we can just leave them behind and move on to the next opportunity.

But some things in life are not ours just for the trying. In some cases, we truly must be committed in order to get the full benefit of the experience. I remember once speaking with a pastoral supervisor about my own tentativeness to leave the comfort of the rectory and to meet people who were complete strangers to me. He agreed that for some people, this can be a stressful experience, but the reality is that if we face our fears, sometimes the source of fear can also end up being the source of greatest blessings and riches.

Jesus himself found many interested bystanders who welcomed the opportunity to receive the food he offered when he fed the five thousand, but shortly afterward when he called them to follow him even unto death, many bystanders fled the scene. He then turned to the disciples and asked them too if they were about to leave him - or were they committed to 'doing' rather than 'trying' this life of service to which he had called them.

On the day of our baptism, we too were invited to 'do' and not to merely stay on the periphery, 'trying out' our faith. The question is, are you willing to do faith, or do you want to stay on the surface and continue trying it until you find the best fit?

Believe

When someone wants to improve his-her life and is provided with an opportunity to learn something new, there is a thirst for knowledge that can seem at times to be ravenous. The character Luke Skywalker is no exception to this rule. Faced with the possibility of moving beyond his sleepy existence and learning about the possibility that there may be much more out there, he is eager to learn about the Force, but when he has to face the discipline of learning how to harness the Force, he becomes discouraged because there is much work to do, and little sign of progress, at least in the initial stages.

Every opportunity for growth in life brings with it a certain degree of commitment on our part, and the fact is that at times the work is sheer drudgery and downright uninteresting. In fact there can be and often are moments along the way that are disheartening: moments when we may be convinced that all our hard work is not bearing much fruit at all, but the secret is to stick with it, to remain committed to developing the skills and to believe that at some point, all the hard work will pay off.

Artists all know the moment at which a water colour painting looks like a mass of colour which is hopelessly more like a giant smudge than the beautiful result of patience required to let the colours blend and set. Linguists know the frustration of endless practice needed to get the pronounciations just right, and musicians know the dedication necessary in order to achieve the breakthrough that comes when they seem to finally stop playing notes and begin making music.

When we begin the journey of faith, the same is true: we may very well begin with the rote prayers we have been taught as children, and these can become boring at times, when we think of them simply as a repetition of words. If however we are persistent enough to reach the moment when we finally discover that words repeated give way to a conversation that takes place between us and God, we discover the true meaning of prayer. Like Luke Skywalker who watches in disbelief as Yoda raises the X-wing fighter out of the swamp, like the piano student who listens in awe to the concert given by his-her favorite virtuoso, each young aprentice in the art of prayer can eventually achieve the satisfaction of divine communication which has the potential to draw us ever closer to our ultimate goal of union with the One who has first created us and who awaits our eventual return.