A Change Is Going To Come

Big changes are happening today to Kicking and Screaming.

Three years ago, partially as a way to keep friends abreast of my experiences in seminary and partially as a lark, I started writing this blog. In fact, I made my very first entry on this blog during my first night of seminary.

During that first year I did not have a lot of classes, I did not have a lot of required activities... heck, I didn't have anything that even closely resembled responsibilities. Consequently, I had a lot of time to write and reflect on my experiences. But as school started the following year and as I began to get more involved in the Paulist Community, I did not have anywhere near the time or energy to write with the same frequency as my first year so the frequency of my posts suffered a very distinct drop.

However over the past few months, I have been in talks with our Paulist Young Adult Ministries, Busted Halo, to pick up the blog. Consequently, it looks like this will be the last post I will be making on this blogspot web site. Kicking and Screaming will now be featured on Busted Halo at the following address:
http://www.bustedhalo.com/kickingandscreaming/.

I have to say, I feel a little like David Letterman just as he left the NBC Studios at the 12:30 time slot and headed uptown to the coveted 11:30 time slot and the much larger Ed Sullivan theater: very excited about the new move yet a bit nostalgic about where I've been.

We are going to be doing some cleaned up "reruns" at first to catch people up to speed who would be new to the blog (and I probably will have to suspend my own rule on swearing online), so some of the initial material might seem a little familiar. It reminds me of the SECOND Dave Matthews album I ever bought: "Under The Table And Dreaming." For those of us who once knew him as a local bar band in Virginia, many of the songs that appeared were simple remasters of songs from "Remember Two Things," his indie label. Not that I'm looking to play Red Rocks or anything, but it's not often I get to make a comparison to Charlottesville's other favorite son.

So I just wanted to thank everyone who has tuned in, left comments, and thrown more support to me than I ever had a right to expect these past few years. See you on the corner of Broadway and 53rd.

Click here for link to new blog.

In and Out

When I gave this homily this morning, I could not resist including the analogy of the Yankees being in the "In" crowd and the Phillies being in the "Out" crowd, but I promise to restrain myself for the 5:20 Mass tonight.

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Imagine being a sinner. Now when we say “sinner” in Jesus’ day, we’re not talking about somebody who simply falls short as we all do. We are talking about an entire class of people, a class of people at the bottom of the heap.

You are a member of this “out” crowd, but you encounter this dynamic person who has accepted you for who you are. He greets you, treats you as if you are the most important person in the world, and spends some time with you. And then some people fro the “in” crowd show up... in that day, the Pharisees were part of the “in” crowd.
Now a lot of people might turn tail when the “in” crowd shows up and starts dumping on you, but Jesus defends you. That must have been a tremendous sense of relief... that this great teacher defends you as being worthy in front of the very people who were putting you down. One thing to have someone support you in private, but to stand up to the movers and the shakers of the day for you must have been quite a feeling.

Now, imagine being the Pharisee. You are used to things going your way, used to life being in control. And its other people’s fault if their lives aren’t going well. In this situation, you think you can score easy points by expressing moral outrage based on the social conventions of the day by putting down sinners, but when you are shown up yourself it must have been embarrassing. Maybe that experience leaves us angry... or maybe that experience leave you contrite and eager to change.

I asked you to imagine these experiences, but I think many of us wouldn’t have to imagine either of them... we’ve lived them. Because most, if not all of us, have had some days when we’ve been the Tax Collectors and some days when we’ve been the Pharisee. A lot of us had some days in the “in” crowd and some days in the “out” crowd.

But as St. Paul also says today, “We shall all have to stand before God.” We are asked to love our neighbor... no matter what crowd we find ourselves in. We are in need of God’s grace... no matter what crowd we find ourselves in. And the Good News we celebrate today is that God’s love is for each and every one of us... no matter what crowd we find ourselves in.

What Jesus REALLY MEANT to say...

As a note, writing homilies on the gospel reading for today is ALWAYS somewhat of a pain. If you want to read it click here, but the main gist that Jesus communicates is renounce all possessions.

On the one hand, you don't want people feeling terrible about themselves, wondering if they need to spend the next few months in confession because they own a house and a car. But that being said, as hyperbolic as Jesus might be here, there is an element that talks to the materialistic nature of society and... sometimes... many of us are asked to drop everything and walk the path. After all, Samuel L. Jackson said he was going to do it at the end of Pulp Fiction, so I don't necessarily want to soften the message with one of those "What Jesus REALLY MEANT to say..." themes.

So this is today's shot at addressing it - I have a feeling that I am going to be working out how to talk about this one... talk about this one honestly... for a long time.

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I hear Jesus say that anyone who follows him must give up his possessions, and I think to myself, “Dear God, he’s not talking about my iPhone, is he?”

Yes, what he’s saying today sounds very extreme... and while I’m not saying that Jesus is not saying something serious, let’s back up to today’s reading from Paul in order to get more perspective. “All the commandments: are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbor as yourself.”

We can listen to that and feel as though we’ve been let off of the hook—-all we have to do is love, right?—-until we reflect how difficult love can really be. And most if not all of us know, truly committing to love can be harder than the following even the most rigorous laws could ever be.

But what Paul tells us today is that if we lead out of love, then following the law takes care of itself. What Jesus tells us today is that if we are to truly lead a life of love, the we have to put God before everything. Just as the law we have been given is summed up by love, all of the things and the relationships we have received in our lives flow from God.

In having God at the center of our lives, there may be times we may very well may be asked to give up something of import, whether it be an important relationship or treasured possessions. But what is important that if we do chose to make sacrifices in our lives, it has to be out of love.

Again, making the sacrifices we are called to make is not always easy things to do. I still live in a little bit of fear of the day when God signals to me that its time to give up the iPhone. But that’s why is why we all gather here today... to ask for and receive that grace to make those sacrifices when necessary so in turn we can receive the love that God has waiting for us.

V

But this evening (while procrastinating on a homily I am supposed to give tomorrow monring) I decided to turn on the re-make of the ultimate mini-series from my youth: V. My main reason for tuning in: I really wanted to see the hot alien chick eat a ginny pig. That didn't happen tonight, but...

Priests get a complicated rap in the media. They usually fall within the continuum of kindly old men or young guys continually spaced out on God. "Down to Earth," heck... "Down to the Solar System" is not often a character type portrayed often. But tonight, as the first sixty minutes closed on this science fiction classic, a priest looked poised to lead the fight for freedom against these rapacious reptilians. And it was good to see a priest be a role model on TV.

Article on Busted Halo

My first article has just been published on Busted Halo. It was co-written with Mirlande Jeanlouis and it's basically a conversation in which we discuss race-relations in America. We got the idea to come up with article after discussing how differently the white community and the black community reacted to Michael Jackson's death. The discussion covered the topics of race relations, the role of protests, Rodney King, and even the sex abuse case in the Church.

To view the story, click on this link:
http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/viewing-america-through-michael-jackson/

It's Not Just For Lost Causes

Okay, some might consider tying in St. Jude with the Yankees might be a stretch, but I was VERY inspired after Sunday's victory. It's been NINE LONG YEARS since we've won it all...

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I realize that there are going to be some people in this room who view me as fundamentally UNFIT to give this homily today. That's because whenever I tell someone that my favorite team is the New York Yankees, the word—the dirty word— that often gets lobbed my way is “Bandwagon.” “What good is it to root for a team that wins ALL OF THE TIME?!?!” And while I see their point to a degree, I usually remind these misguided souls that while my favorite baseball team is indeed the New York Yankees, my favorite NFL football team is the New York Jets.

So you see, I AM more than qualified to give today's homily on the person whose life we celebrate today: Saint Jude, the patron of lost causes. Lost causes. It's hard not to wonder if life is not worth living unless we have, at one time or another, devoted ourselves to a lost cause... and no, I am not just talking about the Chicago Cubs.

I have friends who are social workers, and one of the constant struggles I hear from them is that while the work they do is SO important, many of them wonder if they are making any sort of dent in the world. Many scientists have spent their lives looking for cures to some diseases with only limited success, if any. Martin Luther King did not live to see the dream he described at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial fulfilled, a dream of racial reconciliation we are still working out to this day. The list of lost causes goes on.

Which leaves the question... what makes these people continue? Because if we think about it, we all have had—or currently have—times in our lives when we've been faced with lost causes. They might involve some of the issues we just talked about or even just problems in our personal lives that never seem to get better.

Along the way, we might want to consider Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate example of someone who devoted himself to lost causes, he devoted himself to us humans, who were screwing up for thousands of years before he came into this world and have been screwing up for thousands of years after he came into this world. Yet if we look at the first line of today's gospel, we might get a clue. “Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God.”

Think about that for a moment. Here we have Jesus, the Son of God... heck, he IS God... and he STILL saw the need to pray. That fact alone speaks to the power of prayer.

By recognizing St. Jude as the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, our Church simultaneously holds up the importance of lost causes in our lives as well as points to the necessity of prayer in meeting those lost causes. Because the importance of prayer covers all of the areas of our lives. I mean, I was praying during Derek Jeter at bat… even though he's a sure thing.

Because in life, we all win some. We all lose some. But it doesn't matter how much we win, or how much we lose, it's how we PRAY the game.

Okay, I know that last line was bad. What can I say, I'm a lost cause.

Prince of Peace

Homily on Thursday's Reading.

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“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.”

This is an odd statement from someone we refer to as the “Prince of Peace.” In fact, it doesn't quite square with the “nice guy” image of Jesus that's often presented to us. It wouldn't be that crazy to ask why a God whose essence is love would create such problems.

Now, that might not sound like such a wild comment for some people in this room. The choice to become Catholic, in a part of the country that isn't, certainly has the potential to cause division and conflict... especially if religious affiliations within families differ. Not always of course, but sometimes.

But it doesn't necessarily matter what your your religious background is, anytime ANYBODY has come in the name of peace, there has usually been a lot of conflict and derision. We all know the story of MLK, who led peace marches in support of civil rights. Before him Ghandi led India in a non-violent movement to support the rights of his people. And Henry David Throraeu—who happened to be a good friend of Paulist founder Isaac Hecker—was jailed in his day for refusing to support war with his taxes.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is, how do we respond to God's call for peace? Now, no one denies that there are a lot of complicated issues in the world today. There are conflicts and dangers within our country and all over the world... and easy answers seem few and far between. But today the Prince of Peace challenges all of us by letting us know what the stakes are. So we gather here today in order to pray for the wisdom to meet these challenges in a manner consistent with our baptismal call... as well as the strength to live out the wisdom we receive.

Pop Quiz Theology

Wednesday's homily based on this reading.

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"But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to... eat and drink and get drunk, then that servant’s master will come on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour...'”

All I can say is that I hope the Master doesn't return during a UT tailgating party.

This passage made me nervous when I first read it... I guess it brought back too many memories from Grade School because it makes God sound like a teacher who gives pop quizzes. I HATED pop-quizzes because I was not one of those kids who did well under pressure... there were many times, I knew the material – but I would freeze, my pre-adolescent nervous-system overwhelmed by the suddenness of everything. Not coincidentally, it was this particular quality that led my coaches to bat me last in Little League.

However, all was not lost in the classroom. At some point I learned that if I went to the teacher for extra help, she would realize that at least I was trying. As a result, she tended to be a little bit more sympathetic in her grading.

What we are doing here today is, in part, asking for help from the teacher. We come to Mass, we say the rosary, we go to confession, we have our casual conversation with God throughout the day... all of these things can be considered ways of going to the teacher for extra help. My getting help from the teacher was the means by which I could be a better student. Our coming to Mass today is one of the means by which we become better people.

Over time with the extra-help I received, I began to feel more confident taking pop-quizzes. My grades started to get better... but that was only provided I did my homework. Of course, there were times in my academic career when I would go for extra help and she knew full well that I had been blowing off my homework. Not surprisingly she would be a little less sympathetic in her grading.

And it's like that with our relationship with God. Just like we have to do our homework when we are not in the classroom, we have to do what God requires of us when we are not in this gathering place, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God."

The good thing about my teacher growing up is that even when I was blowing off my work to watch cartoons, she would still be available to help me. In that same way, God is available to help all of us when we haven't been prepared for the pop-quizzes of our loves. At the end of the day, my teacher wanted me to succeed... and at the end of the day God wants us all to succeed as the creatures of justice and love that He has called us to be. And that is the Good news we celebrate today.

The Commissioning (Part 1)

My last week at the hospital was a lot like the last season of a long running TV show, with people who had been part of the beginning of the "series" making final appearances… much like George Clooney guest-starring as Dr. Ross the week before E.R. took its final bow.

During my last few days at the hospital, I was careful not to approach too many new patients in order to avoid potentially starting a pastoral relationship I would not be around to finish. That being said, alumni of the “Tom School of Care” were eligible for visits… so when I saw Albert pop back up on one of my floor charts, I had to confess to being a little bit glad.

Okay, that sounds bad… let me explain.

In the movie Good Will Hunting, Ben Affleck says to Matt Damon that the best part of his day is that he will walk up to his house one day and find that he’s not there: “No goodbye. No see you later. No nothing.” It is true that any good chaplain is happy to see his or her patient resume a life that does not involve feeding tubes and mandatory bed rest, but because patient discharges can frequently happen during weekends, the middle of the night, or a chaplain’s meeting days, “good-byes” are frequently not a luxury available in the life of a chaplain. So it’s not that I was happy that Albert had landed back in the hospital, but he was one of those patients that I had gotten to know pretty well but did not get the chance to say “fare the well.” So on my last day of patient visits, I decided to drop in on him for twenty minutes before heading out.

Optimism… that feckless friend who so often hides the rain clouds coming my way. While it could be said Albert and I have always had good conversations, the word “conversation” is a little misleading. You see, Albert is more of a talker than a conversationalist; thinking that this visit was going to be twenty minutes was less of an act of optimism than it was of denial.

Not that I minded. For one, I typically spend a lot of my time in the hospital trying to get patients to talk at all. But I liked listening to Albert; he struck me as kind of a hipster; with cool tones in his voice I could imagine him wearing a beret and sunglasses in the 1960s… I can’t remember how often he actually employed the use of the word “cat” but it fit his personality completely. Topics in previous conversations covered his involvement in the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement as an African American, some of his progressive politics, his recovery from alcoholism, and of course, religion.

“It’s not that I am anti-religious. Religion is very important—because the light of God is so bright that you have to have it in order to filter it to a degree that we humans can take it. In that way it’s like a Tiffany Lamp, with each faith tradition adding its own distinct color and hue to the light that is shown through. But as for a particular church, I don’t really have one… my religion is AA.”

On one previous visit, he told me a story that he learned in AA. "An alcolohic and God are in a boat; the alcoholic is rowing the boat and God is steering it. The alcoholic gets impatient one day and asks, 'Hey, why can't I steer?' God responds, 'you can steer… but I'm not rowing.' So the alcoholic takes over the steering and the boat starts going in circles. The frustrated man demands of God, 'Why can't you row?' "The Almighty responds, 'Because I'm God and you're not.'" The lesson of the story: The self will run amuck if it is in charge.

The alcoholic described by Albert and I have a lot in common. Letting go and letting God… it’s not really one of those things that I naturally “do.” My usual strategy is to row feverishly in circles until I’ve got a good whirlpool going and then—and only then—do I ask the other Divine passenger in my boat to calm the stormy waters.

[to be continued]