A Christmas point of view

There’s an old story that goes something like this: Many years ago there lived a young disciple and his elder. 

The disciple asked the elder, “Holy One, I have a great spiritual question I need to ask you. Is there life after death?” 

The Holy One thought and said, “That is a great question, but it is not the greatest of spiritual questions. The greatest spiritual question would be, “is there life before death”?

In my studies, the more I learn about Jesus the more I realize that he was devoted to teaching us to live life to the fullest.  He desired to show us how to live fully before our death.

I also know from my readings that Jesus knew and studied the Psalms.  One thing about the Psalms is that when we pray them we will realize that they call us to a way of life that is not heavily  steeped in legalism and rigidity.  Psalms teaches me that God loves all his people and he always listens to his people. As I read Psalms I get to know a personal God who wants good and gives good to everyone. No one is left out of his love for creation. There is no need to fear. This is a wonderful Advent message.

This mornings Psalms touched me deeply, a portion read at Mass said,

Good and upright is the LORD; thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice, he teaches the humble his way.

This time of year is a joyful time.  We gather with family, we read the story of Jesus’ birth, we exchange gifts with loved ones, we give to the needy, we visit family,  and we sit down to a special meal surrounded by those whom we care for.  Our blessings for one another include messages of hope, peace, love, and faith.  All things that remind us of our blessings and that we are called to share them with everyone.

This particular Christmas I have caught myself repeating these two words in my daily reflections: humility and trust. I realize how important it is for me to trust completely in  God, especially whenever I am  experiencing  personal challenges. I contemplate the Nativity in the Manger and I see how much trust Joseph and Mary had and I am challenged to ask for that kind of trust in my personal prayer time with God.  I ask myself, how can I be so trusting that I allow God’s will be done to me?  It is then I realize, I must pray more and immerse myself more in his word.

I am aware that praying doesn’t change the world, but it does change me.  I ask for a life that is full, that is renewed each day, one that overflows so that others see God through my  decisions and actions. Often I fail. Often I point fingers and blame others for my failures.  Slowly I am learning that God is more than I can ever imagine. I am so limited by my human imagination: I see how I put God in “a box”, how I often ask him to choose sides.  What matters is not focusing on who is on God’s side and who is not. The better thing is to reflect; am I on God’s side? This is a matter of humility.

So this Christmas I resolve to be joyful and to love those around me, even when I struggle to do so.  
I will trust that the infant king that came into our world so many years ago did so for a divine purpose.  I pray God shows me the way and that I be open to listening and seeing him in everyone and in every circumstance, no matter how difficult.  I will pray that like Mary and Joseph,  I too am on the side of his divine purpose.

 

Prayer leads to compassion

Our catechism teaches us that God loved us first.  Although we often lose our focus on Jesus, he never tires of calling us and asks us to encounter him in prayer. Prayer is our natural response to God’s love. In the unfolding history of our salvation we can see how this drama of God calling us has played out. If we pay close attention, we can also see it playing out in our very own lives: we turn away from God, or as we explained yesterday to our catechumens, we “miss the mark”, yet God never stops loving us. 

Last night someone very special  who just returned from a weekend Catholic retreat called me.  She was able to take time away from her busy week to spend intimate time in prayer. She exclaimed to me how she was able to possess once again that sense of hope she had not felt in a long time. She also said something that moved me: she said she realized it was not God who had abandoned her; it was that she had lost her way and she knew she had to return to Him.  This conversion experience made her realize that she needed to pray more and to do things differently. She returned with a new attitude of compassion. 

How easy that is to happen to all of us; we get too caught up in what we are doing and how little time we spend in praying and in reflecting on who we are “becoming” each day.  I too get distracted by “doing all the right things”, and easily lose my mark.  Prayer is the narrow road- the way back to God.

In yesterdays Gospel we heard Jesus speak of a parable about having faith and having persistence in prayer. (Lk 18: 1-8) Often we look upon this story to remind us to be persistent in our prayer life and there is truth to that. But if we look at this parable closely, maybe Jesus is telling us to put ourselves in the position of the one being able to help the woman pleading to God for justice.  Often times we are the ones who can be the  voice, the hands and feet of Jesus to the weak and vulnerable in our world. 

Jesus concludes his story by asking, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Our prayer is that we transform our prayerful attitude into a disposition of bold faith, hope, and love. 
Let us always take time to be prayerful and learn to live with an attitude of compassion.

Incarnation Parish-celebrating 50 years as a privileged place.

“The parish is a privileged place where the faithful concretely experience Church.” John Paul II (The Church in America, Post-Synodal  Apostolic Exhortation, 1999)

A “privileged place

I came to Incarnation to worship 23 years ago having been gone away from parish life for a while. Although at that time I was not yet a convicted follower of Christ, it was here where I felt God‘s call to know him more.  God was good and merciful to me and revealed himself in the Eucharist and in his Word and in the sacrament of Reconciliation. This personal encounter of being welcomed and loved led me to see with new eyes. I became aware that my Incarnation parish was a special place that God had prepared for me and my family. It became a place where he could strengthen, nurture and sustain me so that I could take it back to my home and work place. The peace I felt here when I received of Jesus at Communion or when I would go to Confession allowed me to have that peace within me more deeply. Yes, our parish is a privileged place!

Over the years I baptized two additional children at Incarnation, all four children received their First Communion here and three have celebrated Confirmation.  Our oldest daughter was married here by our Pastor, we have celebrated many funeral Masses and Remembrance Masses for dear departed family members and friends. At Incarnation I have wept together with my community, fed the needy and clothed the poor, prayed for one another, welcomed new members, said good bye to others, studied God’s Word , shared faith, and come to know each other’s stories. I learned what a diverse community we are. Yes, we are privileged community!

The people I have met throughout the years in my parish have marked my spiritual journey in profound ways.  I think of Yolanta, an adult Polish American woman who I became great friends with before she died from cancer when my son was only 1 year old.  Although we had only about six years together, our friendship was solid and strong.  When I met her, she used to sit in front of us at Church. She had suffered car accident years earlier and was left disabled. She needed a cane to walk.  It was obvious that she was a bunch of energy and determination. Her spirit was fierce and Catholic, in the purest and best sense of the word! One day after Mass she turned around, shook my hand and said, “my name is Yolanta, with a ‘t’”.  She and her family became very special to us.  I learned their story.  I was inspired by their faith and how it had sustained her parents through World War II, the Holocaust, forced to work as farm laborers when they immigrated to this country and prospered so that their children (Yolanta was one of two) could live peacefully and worship God in their Catholic faith. We ate with them in their home, prayed with them, learned to love Polish food, and share in their Polish traditions.

 If I ever missed Mass, Yolanta would leave a phone message that went something like: “Where the bloody h_ll were you? Call me!”  Yolanta loved standing by the front doors of our church each Sunday and personally welcome each person that walked in.  This was not an official duty, this was just Yolanta being herself.  This was truly someone who was Catholic. The last memory I have of her is at my son’s birthday party, when she and her family shared this special day with me and my family.  She was there for a short bit, very sick fighting Cancer, but she did not want to miss this special day in our son’s life. She was not going to “bloody miss his birthday!”  She passed on not too many weeks later.  Yolanta was sharing with me what she had received from God: love in huge, generous amounts. She is a very powerful reminder for me of how our parish is a privileged place.

The Church is a privileged place because it is where we celebrate the miracle of all miracles and gift of all gifts: the Paschal mystery. Jesus suffered, died and resurrected for us, sinners. In our parish, Body and Blood of Christ has been shared and celebrated every single day for 50 years.  What a blessing!

Indeed, Incarnation is a privileged place as the Holy Father reminded us. We celebrate Mass together and we become Christ-like to one another. We are united to his Body, each of us having a part to play, through our baptism. (1 Cor. 12:27) Together we are Jesus’ caring hands, we are his loving glance, and we are his soothing words. We celebrate 50 years as a Eucharistic community, as a parish, as our spiritual home.  

A “concretely experience Church.”

We are not perfect because we are human, but there is a divine dimension to our community. As a parish we can be sacrament. The definition of sacrament according to our catechism is a special symbol (efficacious symbol) that points to another reality and brings about the very reality that it points to. Jesus, for example, points to God’s love. He IS truly what he represents. Our parish points to God’s true presence among His people. Our parish points to that reality!

Today is a great opportunity to think about how we as active members of our parish have an incredible responsibility to be sacrament to one another! Being parish means to take seriously the social dimension of our encounter with the Risen Lord. “He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 Jn 4:20)  In our parish I have experienced members sacrifice for others; share their time, their talents and their treasures with the community.  I have seen men and women dedicated to their work in our parish, doing most of their serving away from the lime light. I have experienced it personally, as the times my parish prayed for my sick son during  his surgery, visited my loved one at their death bed, sent me cards, held me up in very difficult moments and celebrated with me when God blessed us.  Many of these parishioners did not know me personally, and yet, I felt united with them in a special way in those moments. Through them I felt God’s hand in my life.

Incarnation Parish has been blessed by God. We have seen our community change, we have grown, and at times the changes were not easy. Today we gather and we give thanks for those who came before us to make Incarnation the parish it is today.  Now, we must be mindful that we too must carry on the work of Christ, to be concrete examples of God’s love for everyone who comes through our doors and take it to others who may never enter our doors, always remembering how privileged this place continues to be.

Let us continue to work as a parish in solidarity with our Pastor Michael Suszynski, our Bishop Robert Lynch and with our Pope Francis I. Together lets all be reminded of St. Luke’s words “From those who have received much, much will be required.”

Has RCIA started yet?

Throughout the week I get calls to my office inquiring if RCIA has started in our parish.  The truth is that RCIA never stops in our parish, thankfully. Anyone interested in learning about what it means to follow Jesus and share in the sacraments of the Catholic Church are welcome to join our gathering called “Inquiry” throughout the year and not wait until “RCIA begins”.  These types of calls and others remind me how important RCIA is to our parish and how much education our  community needs on the RCIA process.

When I sit down with a family who inquires about the requirements to become Catholic, I like to begin explaining that it requires a process of conversion and a commitment to apprentice what it means to be active in our Catholic community. The Church looks at this process with an end goal that does not stop at the Easter Vigil, which is when potentially they can receive their sacraments. Instead our focus is that phase which “empowers us for the mission” of the Church; a phase we refer to as “Mystagogy”. 

Mystagogy is that time in our lives after having been fully initiated into the life of the Church, where we attempt to live the mysteries of Jesus’ suffering, dying and rising in our own lives.  We are called to be in a continual conversion experience as Catholics, and this is what the Mystagological experience is about. All initiated Catholics are to be living their own unique mystagogy phase: being in constant state of prayer, examination of conscience, of sharing their gifts with the Catholic community and most importantly in participating in the Catholic Mass each Sunday.

If we are aware that this is where we are headed with the individual or family,  it seems logical that as RCIA catechists our mission to preparing the person has much to do with “demonstrating” how to live out our faith and not just “instructing” about our Catholic faith. 

Hence, the RCIA is not a “program”, which suggests a beginning and an end point, filled with learning and memorizing all kinds of  important Catholic doctrine spread out in the middle.  Instead it is a process, which involves a more holistic and gradual approach to catechesis. The goal and measure as we move along our faith journey with our RCIA group is  to be discerning what God's will is for us  and sharing with the individual how to discern for “changed hearts and changed lives”.  A person is not deemed "ready" based solely upon age or grade or how many lessons they have attained or how much knowledge they have accumulated….the person is ready to become a fully intitiated Catholic when they have experienced a change of attitude and a change of heart towards how they intend to live in God’s Grace.
 

The powerful aspect of the RCIA is that when the process is celebrated along the way with  grace filled rites at the Sunday Mass, planned out thoughtfully, and entered into with open hearts, it reminds the entire community of its important role as witness and our Catholic call to be evangelizing at all times not just in word, but by action too. The individuals who are in the RCIA process remind us each time we are all present at Mass celebrating a rite that we are all to be active in our apostolic mission, to daily examine our own hunger for God’s word and for the Eucharist.  The RCIA process provides the parish an ideal opportunity for transformation of the entire community.

In its essence, RCIA is a ongoing conversion experience that is to be seen as a segment of the larger journey of faith. It says that our spiritual journey will never end in our lifetime, we are called to continual spiritual examination and repentance and healing.  It also makes us all aware that we are all part of the journey, as Church we are a pilgrim people and we must journey together!  The journey begins long before the person seeking baptism reaches our parish and it continues long after the person takes root into the Christian Catholic community at baptism.

Thanks be to God that RCIA is always starting in our parish! Come and see!

 

Jesus is the Bread of Life!

Conversations with families where I work are opportunities for me to find out how the Church can help their family in their journey of faith and of deepening their relationship with our Lord.  One of the questions I usually ask is if they participate in the Mass? More times than I like to admit the answer is “Honestly, we don’t come to Mass regularly” or “I used to go to Mass with my family when I was young, but I don’t really go anymore”.

In these moments my heart is pained as I am reminded of that time in my life when I too was indifferent to my faith. It was a time that I thought my faith in God was enough. Thankfully, the Church continued to love me and welcome me each time (though sporadically) I arrived at Mass. Those years of being indifferent to my faith caused me to have a deep thirst for something I couldn’t put my finger on.  God never stopped reaching out to me. I realized eventually that my indifference was affected by the fact that I had stopped listening to God’s word. My focus had turned to “me” and not on God.  Once I was back at Mass, slowly and gently, God allowed me to flourish as I focused on a friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ. It became a meaningful relationship that I immediately realized I couldn’t live without. This was pure Grace, nothing I deserved or that I could have done on my own. God is so good and merciful.

The most important revelation for me about why Mass was so important was coming to understand that the Eucharist is not a what, but a who.  The Eucharist is Jesus himself. God offered himself as the sacrificial lamb and at Mass we give thanks for his mercy on us.  I was able to accept the mystery of true Love through God’s grace. The Word became flesh so that God could leave us with himself as Eucharist in order to sustain us until the end of time.

Pope Frances celebrates the Mass

 

Jesus gathered and formed a Church. He personally asked people to follow him.  His early group of followers  (men and women) became “fishers of men”. Jesus showed them how to enter into a true conversion of heart experience.  Faith is not based on obedience to God’s law alone; faith is about having and nurturing a personal relationship with our loving God. This is what God desires.

The Church formed in such a way that she feeds us with Word and with Eucharist. Jesus IS the Bread of Life (Gospel of John). What the Church did in those beginning years is essentially very similar to what we still do today in our Mass. We hear God’s Word and we share in Holy Eucharist. At Mass we enter into the mystery of God’s plan of salvation in a uniquely intimate way. This is why Mass not just an ordinary praise and worship experience or just an ordinary communal gathering.

I learned to see the logic of the Eucharist is dependent on a literal understanding of what Jesus is telling us. He is true food.  In his life Jesus did many things, he fed people physically, he healed them of physical ailments, many were witnesses to his miraculous healings and he constantly reminded everyone that the Kingdom of God was at hand. Some of these things were hard for some people to hear, but the most difficulty they had was when Jesus stated that he was also feeding them spiritually because he is the Bread of Life, that he himself was the source of eternal life.

             “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.”(Jn 47-48) 

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Jn 6: 51)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you!” (Jn 6: 53)

St. John recorded what Jesus said. In his writings we see that what Jesus said created huge problems for those hearing him in his time; still today this is where many of us struggle.  Jesus asks people to trust him when he says he is the Bread of life-the source of eternal life. Yes, this is a difficult thing for many of us to believe. As I continue to work with Catholic families, I believe that God is humbly reminding me of who I was many years ago. I pray that I can share with each family that God withholds nothing from us. God is pure gift. God has already has chosen us, we just need to say “I want to believe in you Lord, for you alone have the words of eternal life!”

I pray that we as Catholics may faithfully come to Mass each Sunday to deepen our friendship with Him WHO is the Eucharist.

Full of grace: Maria is her name.

No matter what belief system we profess, mothers are special creatures, aren't they?  If we are one of the lucky ones who have had the experience of a loving and caring mother we probably have an extra special devotion to her. Our culture celebrates it with a special day of the year in honor of her.  If our mother is no longer with us, we may think of her on that day and we celebrate her life and her legacy in our own way. Some of us may visit her grave, or light a candle or place a rose in a vase in her honor or quietly contemplate her picture on our mantle or item she possessed that reminds us of a time when she was still with us. Humans find comfort in symbols and images that remind us the love of our mother.   When we love our mother, no one dares to speak ill of her. My own mother's name is Olga.  When I hear that name anytime, I can't help but think of the woman who created a peaceful home for me,  who baked cakes and let me lick the bowls,  who comforted me when I was scared, who framed my artwork on our living room wall, who constantly reminded me to be good and loving by showing me through her daily actions.  Because she is my mother, she is holy and humanly perfect...no one can ever convince me otherwise.

As a Catholic, our faith naturally allows us to transfer that same kind of devotion to the mother of our Lord. We realize the honor she was given as a gift by God himself.  A young Jewish woman freely said yes to God's invitation to be the Mother of the Messiah. This is celebrated in the Catholic faith and as any good Catholic, we celebrate as joyfully as we can! And because our Christian faith is about relationships, we celebrate as a large family in a gathering that we call "church". When we worship God at Mass, we thank him for choosing Mary and we are reminded of her special call to be Jesus' mother.

Thomas Merton wrote of Mary, "“The genuine significance of Catholic devotion to Mary is to be seen in the light of the Incarnation itself. The Church cannot separate the Son and the Mother. Because the Church conceived of the Incarnation as God’s descent into flesh and into time, and His great gift of Himself to His creatures, she also believes that the one who was closest to Him in this great mystery was the one who participated most perfectly in the gift. When a room is heated by an open flame, surely there is nothing strange in the fact that those who stand closest to the fireplace are the ones who are warmest. And when God comes into the world through the instrumentality of one of His servants, then there is nothing surprising about the fact that His chosen instrument should have the greatest and most intimate share in the divine gift.”

Merton provides us a beautiful image of Mary, as the one who was so close to the flame of love that she herself shared intimately in this gift to humanity.  She carried him in her womb (many theologians refer to her as the new ark of the covenant), nurtured him as he grew, and then participated in his ministry that ultimately led her to weep at the foot of his cross.  The Bible tells us that she being full of grace was there and it was there where Jesus told John, "behold your mother" after he had turned to his mother and said "woman, behold your son". In that moment, she became our mother too. (Jn 19: 26-27)

While in St. Peters in Rome, I marveled at the moving Pieta by Michelangelo. Here he interprets for viewers the moment when our mother held the tortured, limp body of her loving and innocent son after it was taken down from the cross.  He depicts a moment full of God's Grace in marble.  Our Christian faith compels us to ask for such grace. Do we dare ask for such an open heart, so FULL of grace, that would allow itself to break if that is God's will for us, having faith that it will not be destroyed?  A heart that is open to God's will that it would permeate our soul and allow us to be obedient so that we can be transformed to find God in all people, in all things, in every moment? A heart that calls us to eternal communion and an intimate relationship with our God? Do we dare? Such was the heart of our mother, Maria. Maria, like a good mother, shows us how it is possible.  This is what this sculpture seems to want us to contemplate.

 

 

It is no wonder that from the very beginning of Christianity every nation, every village, every where where the good news was taken and spread, where ever Christianity was active and alive there has been a devotion to our blessed Mother's heart .  In my own country of Cuba, she is celebrated for her heart of charity as  La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre.  (The Virgin, Our Lady of Charity.)

But always and simply, Maria is her name.  And so all Catholic mothers and fathers teach our children to yearn for such a humanly and graceful heart as we can find in her.  She demonstrates a love that  goes beyond nationality or race or politics or religion.  This is a mother who loves all of God's children equally and wants us all to love her son as she loves him and to have a personal relationship with him.

"Hail Mary Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.  Amen!"

What is best about humanity-God's love!

I was about to turn 6 years old when a great saint of our time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed his congregation with his message as to why he was against the Vietnam War. 

"A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men. ........ I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. (Bold type is mine) This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of John: “Let us love one another, for God is love. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.” "  (Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967.) 

Many years have gone by and yet I am touched by his sermon in particular this excerpt above. Seems like war is inevitable for every generation. President Obama declared a few days ago that we must punish the people of Syria for the evil that their government have committed against their own people and by going against the international pact that outlaws use of chemical warfare. There are many who argue against this idea. Listening to arguments for not striking I find they are usually grounded basically on  socio/political points: 1- It is not our responsibility nor our problem, so we should stay out of it.  2-We don't have unilateral support from the international community. 3-We can't afford it-it would cost us billions . 4- We're not 100% sure of what will happen if we do strike-it may escalate to where we may need to send soldiers to fight.

All reasonable arguments. I suppose that in the midst of contemplation a lot of us who are just plain people of good will, may have spent the last few days struggling on how we feel about this declaration by our President and our own arguments for whether we agree or not with him.  

Reading Dr. King's sermon reminds me that love "is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to the ultimate reality; a reality which means living in peace with our fellow brothers and sisters.  The 'somehow' in this phrase is powerful because it reminds me  that we can't reason this  type of love out, there is a mystery to it that we must accept in order to  understand this kind of love... a love that he assured his congregation would lead to true freedom, unity, fellowship,  and peace.

It takes courage for a spiritual leader to speak this kind of truth today, because it is not easy to swallow.  Many of us prefer a degraded  and consumer-ized kind of love.  We want love that we can see and touch because we want to posses it; we want to reason with it. Yet, Dr. Martin Luther King exhorts us to  focus on a Christian paradigm of love that permeates all our hearts, regardless of religion or nationality. A love that was lived perfectly but not without human suffering, in Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ's good news and testimony to the world is that men are capable of resisting evil and violence if they have faith in God's love. We must resist evil in order to experience love. Wars are inevitable when  attitudes of pride, power, greed, and vengeance are nourished and celebrated among ourselves.  We must constantly be looking inside ourselves and rejecting those evil attitudes in our daily lives so that God's love, which is not always practical nor reasonable,  can reign in our lives.

I imagine President Obama has reflected on the day he  received his Nobel Peace Prize award. The commission stated in 2009 why he deserved such high honor, "... His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."  

Obama accepted this award and gave a very inspiring speech where he  referred to the law of love, ".... Adhering to this law of love has always been the core struggle of human nature. We are fallible. We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil......The non-violence practiced by men like Gandhi and King may not have been practical or possible in every circumstance, but the love that they preached - their faith in human progress - must always be the North Star that guides us on our journey.  For if we lose that faith - if we dismiss it as silly or naïve; if we divorce it from the decisions that we make on issues of war and peace - then we lose what is best about humanity. We lose our sense of possibility. We lose our moral compass."

And so as each of us contemplate the future, we must be careful to stay open to the law of love, and rid ourselves of attitudes that diminish  hope and or rejects a faith in our God of love. 

Dr. King upon receiving his own Nobel Peace Prize understood the call to be a peacemaker, its more than just work, it is a vocation that calls us to obedience to God's unreasonable kind of love, the kind that Jesus Christ exemplified. Here is an excerpt:

".... it was a commission--a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of Man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances. But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men, for communists and capitalists, for their children and ours, for black and white, for revolutionary and conservative. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved His enemies so fully that he died for them?"

President Obama, let us not forget the One who calls us to love as He loved. Let us not lose faith in what is "best about humanity"!

Oh Maria, Madre Mia!

Ok, here's the deal.  I am a Catholic, if you know me you know this about me already.  Being Catholic can be simple and yet complex. Being Catholic means that I believe in the teachings of our ancient Church, a community that begun when Jesus' disciples (apostles)gathered after his death; who left for us a model of living and  of how to worship our God; how to be Church.  Now, those of you who are reading this and are not Catholic may have all sort of assumptions about my faith and my church.  I have found that the most confused about the Catholic faith and Church are those who once were Catholic themselves and were catechized (taught) in a way that is not truly and authentically Catholic.  And then there are the Hollywood images of Catholicism which usually contorts the Catholic faith into something it isn't. And there are many Catholics who just don't know their faith and easily confuse others when asked about what the Church teaches. This is the case often when we are asked about why we "worship" Mary.

Mary was a young Jewish girl, who we believe accepted God's invitation to become the Mother of Jesus. We see her as the first disciple.  She was the first to say "yes" to God.  This is scriptural. In Luke's Gospel he references 3 themes in regards to Mary-they are discipleship, her virginity and motherhood.  In Luke 1:26-38 he tells us of the moment of the Incarnation, when the Word of God took flesh in Mary's womb. You will find in Luke 1: 45-55,  where Mary  proclaims God's goodness and holiness and all the marvelous deeds he has done. She was a faith filled Jewish girl who has become  a great role model for all Catholics by her ability to say "yes" to God so fully.

Because Mary was a simple woman, a devoted mother, a wife, and a disciple, from the very beginnings of the Church, she was a woman who was honored for her part in building God's Church.  One only has to look at architectural monuments, early churches from the 3rd and 4th century in Syria, Turkey, Egypt, and find old Churches named in her honor or see her image depicted as large icons on the church's main walls.   There was something special about Mary, she was the heart of the early Church, and the early Church fathers did not want future generations of Christians to forget. Many early bishops and theologians from those early centuries wrote about her special role as Mother of the Church.

Over the centuries devotions to Mary grew, but this crucial understanding of Mary: being especially selected by God, being a virgin, and giving birth to our Lord, makes her worthy of devotion and honor (caution: in Catholic lingo devotion and honor  does not equal worship). Heads up!....beware Catholics who are reading this, remember that our devotion to Mary does not mean that we adore her like we do God.

Not a lot is written about Mary in the Bible, but like other events that happened in the early church period, certain oral traditions exist and were passed down, like about where Mary lived, where Mary died, etc. It  is not my intention to write a theological argument for the Catholic doctrine of Mary.  But what I do want to share today is my love for Mary, especially on such a special day for her. Today we celebrate her going (being assumed)  into God's presence, body and soul. This is another very early Christian understanding of Mary's death.   

Simply, I want to share with you dear reader, that as I have deepened by relationship with our Lord I have naturally found a need to know  his family more.  I reflect on how Mary came to be his mother.  The Bible gives me some understanding on her humility and her being "full of grace". "And he (the angel) came to her and said, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!'" (Luke 1:28)

To really grasp the full depth of meaning in this passage, we have to look at the original Greek language in which it was written.  What does that mean, to be FULL of grace?  Unlike you or me, who have grace accessible to us, we are not "full of grace" in the same way.  She carried our Lord in her womb, she became a living tabernacle for our Lord to grow and become human! Mary wasn't just given grace like we receive grace. The bible say she was filled with grace, completed in grace, perfected in grace, and this fullness of grace persisted, it continued up to and through the present. Sin and grace are opposed (Rom 5:20-21), and grace saves us from sin (Eph 2:5, 8). Where there is fullness of grace there is no room for sin. The more I reflect on this, the more I am in awe of God's mysterious plan for salvation for his creation. 

When I pray to Mary, I am not worshipping her, nor am I saying she is equal to Jesus. Simply I am developing a spiritual relationship with her, as I would to my deceased grandmother for example. I believe that Mary, who is my mother too, is in heaven already enjoying God's presence, she will intercede for me and she will direct me to be holy, as any good mother does for her child.   This is similar when I ask anyone to pray for me, who better than our Lord's mother to also put in a good word for me?

Lastly, I am not here to defend my love for Mary. Because in the end, when you love someone, whether they are alive or passed on,  there is no need to justify it, you continue to experience the love and you want to share it.  I enjoy my relationship with my spiritual mother, she keeps me focused straight on her son.  She wants me to love her Son more, because He is God. (As she did in the Wedding at Cana....she tells us too "do as he says".)

So as I reflect on this feast day, The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary I think of this song I learned as a girl, sung to me by my Catholic Grandmother:

Oh Maria, Madre Mia, o Consuelo del mortal....amparadme, y guiadme a la patria celestial.

Literally translated this song says: Oh Maria, My Mother, Consoler of mortal ones...protect me and guide me to the celestial homeland.

The understanding of Mary that I learned from my abuela was to trust in God's mercy who gave us his Church as a way to reach our celestial homeland.  The Church doesn't want us to worship Mary.  The Church only follows in the example of Elizabeth, who exclaimed upon seeing Mary, “And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). God not only sent us his son to save us, he gave us his Mother too.  So by making room for Jesus in my heart, I also found Mary waiting there for me too.  No, we don't worship Mary, but we do love her for what she did and who she continues to be to us.

My son's 2nd grade artistic interpretation of Rafael's "Madonna and Child"-21st century

Actual "Madonna and Child" by Rafael- early 1500's.

 

An unexpected way to celebrate our love

Saturday, July 16, 1983 @ 5:30pm.......

"I, Carmen, take you, Felix, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love and honor you all the days of my life."

Now fast forward 30 years, Tuesday, July 16 @ 7:00am, our  day started by my bringing my husband breakfast in bed before I dashed off to drop off Zac at summer school and go to work.  I was not trying to be romantic, no, I brought him breakfast  due to the fact that he has  had a severe back ache and a pulled muscle problem.  Since Sunday he has been laid up in bed, literally unable to walk. Unable to go to work.  In extreme pain.  These last three days  I have had to help him go to the bathroom, get his medicines, bring his meals up to him and help him shower and dress himself. 

Some hours later, In the afternoon  we found ourselves in the waiting room of his doctor.  We both looked at each other. This was not what we had planned for today, or this week for that matter.  We smiled at each other. Such is life.

"I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health."

Looking back we have had  many mountain high moments and valley low moments. If we rely purely on our emotions, our relationship would have been long over by now.  However, thanks to those family and friends who have been excellent examples to us, we have seen that rough  times, sad times, and disappointing times are transition points.  We have learned to have patience with what comes our way.  We have seen how God has been in the midst of every problem we have tried to solve together. And when it seemed too tough, well, thankfully  that was when friends and family stepped in closer, loved us, prayed for us, and believed in us. 

"I will love you and honor you all the days of my life"

.....yes, so as we sat for what seemed an eternity in the doctor's office waiting to be called in, we celebrated our love in an unexpected way, we held hands and we smiled.  We can't complain.  Despite our pains and human frailties, we are blessed!  Happy Anniversary to my other half....and may you heal soon!

 

Cost of discipleship-Reflection on this Sunday's Gospel

There is a special date in my life that changed my trajectory. It was January 13th.  On that day Jesus and I intersected.  Well, Jesus had been after me for many years, but it was that day in 1996 that I heard him say my name and ask me an important question.  "Will you follow me?" On that day I responded.

This Sunday's  story we hear from St. Luke (9:51-62) the story of Jesus who was headed to Jerusalem.  He was with his disciples and he rebukes them for wanting to punish a town that does not welcome them.  Jesus once again shows us that he is more interested in evangelizing through his actions of peace.  Jesus invites us to follow him, he doesn't intimidate us nor does he humiliate us into following him.  And this is how Jesus came to me too.  He came gently into my heart and said to me "I love you".

On that day I was determined I would be a follower of Jesus'.  I had a lot to learn, despite having grown up Catholic I was like a baby in my faith; I was eager.  I wanted to know him more.
Standing in front of a tabernacle in a very humble church environment far from home, after having received communion,  I fell in love with my Lord. I heard him clearly and I responded in faith: "Yes Lord, I will follow you."  But I was afraid.  I heard him say, "trust me, have no fear".  So I stepped out of my old life and way of being that day and never looked back.

I desired to be obedient to his teachings, I was eager to follow his ways. I began to devour the Bible and I would pray...."Lord, you want me to go to Africa? Ok! I will go."  Or, "Lord, you want me to volunteer at a homeless shelter? Yes, I will do it!"  But instead I heard him say to me in the silence of my heart to be at peace. He began to teach me to pray and care for my family. I learned to be patient with myself.  It was going to take some time for him to teach me new behaviors, new attitudes, new ways of loving. He was challenging me to stretch myself. I began to forgive old debts. I began to heal old wounds. I learned to love Mary, his mother as my own mom.  She became a model for me on what it means to be a disciple, as woman and a mother.

Jesus calls each of us to be his disciple every day. He asks us to take up our cross. There is a definite cost to discipleship. For each one of us it is different.  We hear this in the gospel when each individual tells Jesus one reason or another why they must take care of something first.  Jesus says to focus first on following him.  He clearly wants us to understand that there will be discomfort in our experiences as a disciple.  Remember, he asks us to travel down a narrow road!  We'll find many who question our sanity or our intellect.  He asks us to step outside of our comfort zones.  He asks us to have courage! 

In those days my gaze had been on a very promising career.  I worked very hard and I was earning a good income; acquiring prestige in my professional circle. I was passionate about my work, it seemed it consumed my life. I had no time for anything else.  I loved my children and husband very much.  My husband and I struggled to make time for one another. Having encountered Jesus, I realized it was time to make some decisions I had avoided because my pride would get in the way. I left my full time position and reset my gaze on Jesus. I trusted that the  gifts that the Father had given me  which I had been able to use in my profession would now be used first for the Glory of God instead of for my own glory. 

I don't regret this decision.  It has taken me down a road of an unknown future and of many surprises, yet I have never felt alone nor weak.  When I think of my future, I am looking beyond retirement, I am looking at where I want to be spiritually once my body is cast off.  I know that my life has a super natural purpose, Jesus is not  going to lead me astray.  

Looking back on my life, the cost of discipleship for me has been devastating if seen from a secular point of view.  But from a spiritual perspective I have gained so much more than I could ever have imagined.  I feel peaceful.  I feel fulfilled.  I feel alive.  I have refocused my life around prayer and feeding myself and my family spiritually.  Each day Jesus asks me to give something up, and I have been given the grace to say yes. The Christian path is a life of denial. As Paul says, it is no longer I that lives but Christ lives in me.  (Gal 2: 20)  I am still being taught by him, often I fail.  Yet, these words which I heard I still treasure are not far from my mind, "trust in me...pray often....have no fear".  I believe that through prayer this has been an  answer which led me straight to my savior, who had been waiting for me in the Eucharist all this time.  There he lovingly invited me to follow him.

Is there a cost to following him? You bet!  If you let go of  fears, say yes, you too will say that he is worth it all!

Who do you say I am? Lk 9:18-24

In this Sunday's Gospel we hear Jesus ask his disciples "who do YOU think I am?" St. Peter, who later during our Lord's suffering denied knowing him three times, said quite clearly "The Christ of God".  Jesus is said to have rebuked him. It seems that Peter and the disciples did not really understand what Jesus was asking.  Peter thought he had the right answer.  After all he had been hanging around Jesus for some time, surely he thought he knew him. He had seen him heal illnesses, feed multitudes, forgive sinners, they prayed together, ate meals together, traveled together.  He thought he knew Jesus.

To know someone means that one has a relationship with that person.  It seems that this Gospel we are being asked to not be so quick to think we know who Jesus is.

In our society we see many groups or individuals who will be very quick to identify with the Democratic Jesus or the Republican Jesus or the Touchdown Jesus or the Psychologist Jesus or the Warrior Jesus or the Meek Jesus or the Friend Jesus or the Environmental Jesus.....so many ways to frame our concept of Jesus upon whom we'll  profess our faith upon.

What Jesus teaches us is that he is always more than what we think he is. He is more loving, more forgiving, more terrifying, more awesome, more Son of God than we can ever imagine.  And what I like best about this Gospel is that Jesus doesn't define for us in this moment what the "right" answer should have been, instead he keeps us in a spirit of discernment. 

Later, he shows us who he really is with the greatest miracle ever....a moment when eternity breaks into our sphere.  Through his death and resurrection Jesus leaves those who truly want to know him the answer to this question: he is the Son of a Living God.  He shows us that he takes upon himself the sins of the entire world, so that all of us may be assured of eternity with our Father. This Jesus is Love in the truest sense of the word. Love that wants a relationship with us.  Love that is a person.  Love that wants us to be like Love too.

 

 

When we come to know Jesus we must choose to love him or not. There really is no in between.  This is why at Mass, each Sunday we approach the altar and say "yes" to Jesus by participating in his miracle of death and resurrection. This event happened once in history however it is an eternal sacrifice. (Hebrews 7:26-27 and Heb 9:11 among others).We become active with God in the greatest miracle of all.  (Lk 22:19)  When we celebrate and "remember" this miracle we are saying 'yes' to becoming a part of our miracle story. We are saying 'I want to know you more'.  We eat his body and drink his blood in remembrance of this truth, of this promise. (1 Corin. 11:24)  It becomes our mystical encounter with the person; the Living Son of God who challenges us by asking us each time: "who do you say I am?"

If we believe this to be true when we approach the altar we don't see just an ordinary table anymore. This table where our community gathers has transformed into a sacred place where Jesus becomes real in our presence.  Knowing Jesus makes me humble, makes me hopeful, makes me remorseful,  makes me want to be like him and sacrifice myself for the good of others.  When we come to know this Jesus we are faced with a dilemma-do I allow myself to be transformed into Love?  If I choose to be transformed I must die to my old self.  This is where the rub exists.  This is where I fail as a disciple, because if I am honest, I want to have the Jesus that fits my "box". I prefer to be in my comfort zone. 

Getting to know Jesus is a process.  He challenges me to get to know him better.  I must not be quick to say "I have him figured out".  I must walk the via dolorosa with him. I must be prayerful like him. I must be a peacemaker like him.  I must be open to examine my conscience each day,  willing to admit my sinfulness and my need for Him in my life.  I must be more like him and less like my Self(who wants the easy way, the proud way, all the power, all the glory for myself).

So the question we reflect on this week is....who do I say Jesus is?  Let us ponder.

 

Tribute to an Art Teacher

Tribute to an Art teacher

There are some teachers who leave an impression that one may not notice until one is mature enough to know the difference.  Mr.  Anthony Cardoso was such a teacher for me. 

What made Mr. Cardoso unique was the love that he demonstrated for art. Without a lot of fanfare or boasting,  he made it obvious that he was in love with the topic that he was about to demonstrate to his class.  His hands would move pastels, or water colors around on paper or arrange wood blocks in ways that seemed to be magical.  Art could be linear and be spun with yarn and wrapped around nails or could be fluid and translucent through the use of paint on glass surfaces. Clay became a material that contained an essence of something that needed to be born. The ordinary became extraordinary in our classroom experiences with him. He taught us to see our world joyfully with new eyes.

In his classes throughout high school,  he taught me important lessons that would serve me well later in my own experience as a designer and design educator. 

He taught me to self criticize my work but to also appreciate the process that led me to the work as well. It was easy to love his class because it was the one period in my day where I could experiment and dream.  He made it a safe zone for making mistakes and moving on.  It was a place where the process had value as much as the end result.  In his room, it was ok to be messy and playful. In fact, the messier and the more mistakes I made the better the outcome may be. 

He taught me to have a discerning eye for design, to look for order, pattern and shape; to see wholeness and to appreciate details. Both bigness and smallness have their place in good art.

He opened my awareness to beauty that can be expressed through materials, through combinations of materials, through ordinary elements. He showed me how to trust my instincts.

He  taught me to see that being creative involved as much serious work as  did serendipity and fun.  Creativity involved using both sides of the brain: the logical and the irrational.  Together mystical things can happen and I had the power to make it happen. He taught me to love art, to live art, and to imagine myself as a person who enabled beauty to exist in the world.

He moved through the class smiling and stopping at our table. He had a way of being gentle yet in prodding ways he would help us examine our work. He gave us confidence in our ability to recognize when to stop and what needed more work.

The highlight for me was painting murals throughout the Tampa Bay community. His serene presence in the background, we became his apprentices in the realm of public art.  He helped us understand the power that art has as a communication tool.  Without the use of text, well composed images can captivate and can send messages in significant ways.

As his art students we learned to be co creators with him in our community.  He would allow us some artistic control over pieces that would mark our existence in our neighborhoods.  It affirmed that as artists we could leave something valuable for others.  

In my 20 years teaching, he came to mind often.  Little did I know then as a high school student how important to me his teaching style would be. He  demonstrated how to teach from the heart as well as the mind. The most important thing a teacher can give to a student is to be so in love with their subject that it shows in everything they bring to their lessons.  That is what Mr. Cardoso did.  He taught many of us to love art, to be inspired by art, and to want to share that love with others.

Years later, talk about serendipity; his grandson Justin and my daughter Cristina would meet, begin dating and fall in love. I had not seen Mr. Cardoso since my high school years. One of the first family gatherings we had in our home before the kids married, I shared with him how important our classroom experiences had been to me.  I pulled out an old faded picture of one the art pieces that we had the painted as a class. It had been a huge mural on the outside of the Humane Society building. We shared some laughs; he vaguely remembered this event even though in my mind it had been a monumental moment in my career as an "artist". I will always recall that Saturday spring morning when we art students and mentor gathered and began to lay out the work on the huge vertical plane.  It seemed so overwhelming. Yet his calm and confident presence guided us throughout the day. He helped us mix colors, he fine tuned our work. For many years afterwards, I would drive by that building and smile at that "masterpiece" courtesy of bunch of high school kids and one amazing and dedicated teacher who believed in our ability to make art appear on the outside of a very plain old surface.  Retelling him that story, it did not surprise me that he shrugged off the appreciation and  compliments that I tried to give him for giving us such incredible learning experiences.

Mr. Cardoso has left an big impression in the lives of many students who were privileged to have had him. He also has left a wonderful legacy in Tampa with his murals and sculptures that adorn galleries and parks, each one capturing  the beautiful essence of being alive and being human. He touched my heart as an artist and because of him it has made a big difference in my life and in my family.