Deacon Bob’s Homily at the Advent Clergy Day 2015

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is the homily I was asked to give at the Advent Clergy Day for the Diocese of Winona.

God bless each of you!

Advent Day of Reflection for Clergy of Winona Diocese
December 17, 2015
Owatonna, Minnesota

Scripture: Isaiah 30: 19-21, 23-26
I asked you to listen carefully to this Scripture taken from the prophet Isaiah. I now ask you, “Is this the kind of Lord and God we want to come into our lives and rule over us? Is this the kind of God who we will take into our lives and into the world? Is this the God that we in our flesh will make present to the people of God to whom we are sent, a people who ache for his presence, even though they may not recognize him?

He is beautiful, is he not? He promises so many beautiful things, does he not? It is easy for us to say, “Yes! Come Lord Jesus into my life and into the world! Maranatha!” but are we really prepared to say this? We need to be careful and honest lest we speak these words without preparation and prayer. As all the saints attest, to welcome the coming of the Lord into our lives and into the world requires a spiritual suffering and purification. We too must suffer his coming!

So the question is, are we willing to suffer the coming of Christ into our lives and into our world? Are we willing to be sufficiently purified and emptied of all that would place an obstacle in his way? Are we willing to be continually attentive to the Father uttering his eternal Word into our souls and into the world in the power of the Spirit? Are we willing to undergo that kind of spiritual martyrdom that is required if we are to remain both present to the Father uttering his Word Jesus into our lives and simultaneously attentive to the people to whom we are sent? Or will we fall back into a lives of distraction, isolation, and loneliness, which are the breeding grounds of sin and keep us from the God who comes to save, from each other, and from the People of God?

We must remain attentive, alert, and receptive. We must be purified of our distractions, our sin, our isolation from God, each other, and the Church. We must be purified of our loneliness and our worldly attachments if we are to welcome the coming of the Lord.

I have become convinced, brothers in Holy Orders, that central to all of us who are ordered to the Holy by our sharing in this sacrament, is a spiritual martyrdom through a complete consecration to the Gospel and to the human condition. We must be radically configured to the incarnate Jesus as obedient sons of the Father empowered by the Holy Spirit and sent in service to the Church. But we cannot be so configured or sent without first having being purified from sin, from all that would distract us, from inner isolation and loneliness, i.e., those things that give rise to sin. We cannot be who we are called to be in Holy Orders, icons of Jesus Christ, if we remain in our sin, our loneliness, separation from God and from his people, from ourselves and from each other. We must be purified! We must suffer the martyrdom of the coming of Jesus in this way. We must be willing to let go, to shed all that hinders us from this purification and keeps us isolated and lonely. We must be purified, emptied, forgiven and vulnerable to his coming in the diaconal and/or priestly character impressed on our beings at our ordinations. The touch of the Father must remain in our lives. This is and will be a suffering, a spiritual martyrdom, for us all.

Advent, then, is not only a time of anticipation of the coming of the Lord and a remembrance of his coming as the Child of Bethlehem. It is also a time of suffering the emptiness that must be ours if we are to filled with him, the Word, who comes. We must prepare a place for him in our hearts and in our world.

Let us strip ourselves of all that would distract us from his coming. Most importantly let go of the loneliness which we have allowed to take root in our lives, especially our spiritual lives. We need to be with him. We must allow for a relationship with the Lord who comes. We must pray. We must seek forgiveness. We must also allow for relationship with each other and we must take the risk of relationship with those in need of God’s presence. This is the continual message of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is it not?

We cannot lapse into a lonely self-concern or a clerical separation from the very people to whom we are sent, a people who are hurting far too much for us to be lonely and separated from them.

My brothers, we are to be the coming of the Lord in today’s world! We are the ones who are ordered to the Holy, i.e., configured to Jesus Christ, first as deacon in his diakonia, and then for some of you as priest or bishop, as victim and high priest. We must remain in relationship with the Lord who comes so we may bear him, suffer him, and present him to the world which desperately longs for him even though they may not know it.

We are sons of the Father! We must be attentive to the Father uttering his eternal Word, Jesus Christ, and filled with the Gospel and always available to being sent forth from the Father, as Jesus was sent. We must be filled with the coming of Christ into our lives, filled by emptying ourselves of distractions, isolation, and loneliness which give rise to sin in our lives. We must be filled with the Word of God, the Gospel, and then be available to the Father’s will for us in service to his people.

I repeat, we are sons of the Father! We as deacons bear the Gospel of which we are heralds and the servant mysteries of Christ in the Church; you as priests and bishop bear the sacraments and Eucharistic sacrifice into the world. We all suffer his coming. We all bear Jesus! Let us now be purified of our sin so we can be sent forth into the peripheries of the world to be a purifying presence to others.

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Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Deacon Bob

To all my readers, I wish to extend to you my blessing on this obligatory solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Mother of God.

The Immaculate Conception

The Immaculate Conception Photo source: The Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Since this solemnity is often misunderstood as a celebration of Mary conceiving Jesus in her womb through the Holy Spirit (this is not what we are recalling this day), I want to simply state what I am sure all of you know: Today is the day we recall the conception of Mary, who was conceived without sin, who was spared, by a singular grace of God won for her by her Son Jesus’ merits, the stain of original sin. We also believe that Mary kept her sinlessness throughout her life, free from both original and actual, personal sin. All of this by God’s grace and her cooperation with the grace given her, so that she would be a worthy mother of God himself in his Son, Jesus Christ.

This is a sign from God of how important and dignified we are meant to be, all of us. Mary is a model for us, both in life and in death. What she is, we too will be if we are responsive to the grace given us in our lives, and faithfully do what is asked of us by the Lord. Mary’s highest dignity and honor was in following her Lord, her son, Jesus, by being not only his mother, but his follower. She followed him everywhere, and led all to him by her intercession, example, and acceding to grace. Yes, she was given a special, singular grace not offered to us, but like us she had a role to play in the history of salvation, and she fulfilled it perfectly. Our role, our mission, our vocation, is also equally important in some ways. Will we accept it?

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Martyrdom, Spiritual and Physical

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Deacon Bob

I came across this icon painted by Nicola Savic, a Serbian artist (click here for source). It depicts the 20 Libyan Coptic Christian martyrs who were beheaded by ISIS this February after refusing to renounce the faith in Jesus. The Coptic Orthodox Church has recognized them as martyrs.

Icon of the Libyan Martyrs By Nicola Savic

Icon of the Libyan Martyrs By Nicola Savic; Photo source:  https://stream.org/serbian-artist-paints-austere-icon-holy-martyrs-libya\

The icon, and the men who died and are represented in it, are consistent with what I have been thinking and writing about the past several months, i.e., martyrdom as experienced by deacons. The martyrdom of which I have been thinking is not so much the blood martyrdom undergone by men such as the Libyan martyrs, but rather the spiritual martyrdom that seems so central to the spiritual life of a deacon who is living his vocation fully, for indeed, a fully diaconal life seems to lead one to a reality unlike what a man has previously experienced before ordination, a reality that can be described as an attentiveness to the Word uttered by the Father that leads the deacon into a purifying presence to suffering humanity. This attentiveness is a death to self and a suffering of the coming of the Word into the life of the deacon, a suffering that impels him to a purifying presence to the suffering of humanity. It seems to be all about presence, to me, and purification, i.e., presence to the Father uttered Word in the power of the Spirit, presence to the Trinity, and presence to Jesus’ suffering in the flesh of humanity in today’s world with all its loneliness and distractions and sin. The emptiness that one must allow in oneself, as deacon, so as to be able to be present to Trinitarian life and human life, this emptiness is a real spiritual martyrdom.

I could go on, but I am only beginning to develop these ideas. I will need to refer you to my next article I hope to have published in the Josephinum Diaconate Review in the near future.

Until then, let us never forget the blood martyrdom experienced by so many in today’s world. Let us pray to them to intercede for us as we face our own call to die for the faith in whatever way necessary, and for us deacons to never fear emptying ourselves so we may remain attentive to the Father and radically available to being sent by him to those most in need of his presence and his purifying love.

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Pope Francis’ Words to the Poor in Nairobi

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is the Pope’s address to the poor of Nairobi, Kenya. As you most probably are aware, he is visiting that country in recent days.

His words speak for themselves.

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO KENYA, UGANDA AND THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
(25-30 NOVEMBER 2015)

VISIT TO KANGEMI SLUM

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Nairobi (Kenya)
Friday, 27 November 2015

 

Thank you for welcoming me to your neighbourhood. I thank Archbishop Kivuva and Father Pascal for their kind words. I feel very much at home sharing these moments with brothers and sisters who, and I am not ashamed to say this, have a special place in my life and my decisions. I am here because I want you to know that your joys and hopes, your troubles and your sorrows, are not indifferent to me. I realize the difficulties which you experience daily! How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?

First of all, though, I would like to speak about something which the language of exclusion often disregards or seems to ignore. It is the wisdom found in poor neighbourhoods. A wisdom which is born of the “stubborn resistance” of that which is authentic” (cf. Laudato Si’, 112), from Gospel values which an opulent society, anaesthetized by unbridled consumption, would seem to have forgotten. You are able “to weave bonds of belonging and togetherness which convert overcrowding into an experience of community in which the walls of the ego are torn down and the barriers of selfishness overcome” (ibid., 149).

The culture of poor neighbourhoods, steeped in this particular wisdom, “has very positive traits, which can offer something to these times in which we live; it is expressed in values such as solidarity, giving one’s life for others, preferring birth to death, providing Christian burial to one’s dead; finding a place for the sick in one’s home, sharing bread with the hungry (for ‘there is always room for one more seat at the table’), showing patience and strength when faced with great adversity, and so on” (Equipo de Sacerdotes para las Villas de Emergencia, Argentina, Reflexiones sobre urbanización y la cultura villera, 2010). Values grounded in the fact each human being is more important than the god of money. Thank you for reminding us that another type of culture is possible.

I want in first place to uphold these values which you practice, values which are not quoted in the stock exchange, are not subject to speculation, and have no market price. I congratulate you, I accompany you and I want you to know that the Lord never forgets you. The path of Jesus began on the peripheries, it goes from the poor and with the poor, towards others.

To see these signs of good living that increase daily in your midst in no way entails a disregard for the dreadful injustice of urban exclusion. These are wounds inflicted by minorities who cling to power and wealth, who selfishly squander while a growing majority is forced to flee to abandoned, filthy and run-down peripheries.

This becomes even worse when we see the unjust distribution of land (if not in this neighbourhood, certainly in others) which leads in many cases to entire families having to pay excessive and unfair rents for utterly unfit housing. I am also aware of the serious problem posed by faceless “private developers” who hoard areas of land and even attempt to appropriate the playgrounds of your children’s schools. This is what happens when we forget that “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone” (Centesimus Annus, 31).

One very serious problem in this regard is the lack of access to infrastructures and basic services. By this I mean toilets, sewers, drains, refuse collection, electricity, roads, as well as schools, hospitals, recreational and sport centres, studios and workshops for artists and craftsmen. I refer in particular to access to drinking water. “Access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity” (Laudato Si’, 30). To deny a family water, under any bureaucratic pretext whatsoever, is a great injustice, especially when one profits from this need.

This situation of indifference and hostility experienced by poor neighbourhoods is aggravated when violence spreads and criminal organizations, serving economic or political interests, use children and young people as “canon fodder” for their ruthless business affairs. I also appreciate the struggles of those women who fight heroically to protect their sons and daughters from these dangers. I ask God that that the authorities may embark, together with you, upon the path of social inclusion, education, sport, community action, and the protection of families, for this is the only guarantee of a peace that is just, authentic and enduring.

These realities which I have just mentioned are not a random combination of unrelated problems. They are a consequence of new forms of colonialism which would make African countries “parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel” (Ecclesia in Africa, 52). Indeed, countries are frequently pressured to adopt policies typical of the culture of waste, like those aimed at lowering the birth rate, which seek “to legitimize the present model of distribution, where a minority believes that it has the right to consume in a way which can never be universalized” (Laudato Si’, 50).

In this regard, I would propose a renewed attention to the idea of a respectful urban integration, as opposed to elimination, paternalism, indifference or mere containment. We need integrated cities which belong to everyone. We need to go beyond the mere proclamation of rights which are not respected in practice, to implementing concrete and systematic initiatives capable of improving the overall living situation, and planning new urban developments of good quality for housing future generations. The social and environmental debt owed to the poor of cities can be paid by respecting their sacred right of the “three Ls”: Land, Lodging, Labour. This is not philanthropy; it is a moral duty upon all of us.

I wish to call all Christians, and their pastors in particular, to renew their missionary zeal, to take initiative in the face of so many situations of injustice, to be involved in their neighbours’ problems, to accompany them in their struggles, to protect the fruits of their communitarian labour and to celebrate together each victory, large or small. I realize that you are already doing much, but I ask to remember this is not just another task; it may instead be the most important task of all, because “the Gospel is addressed in a special way to the poor” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Bishops of Brazil, 11 May 2007, 3).

Dear neighbours, dear brothers and sisters, let us together pray, work and commit ourselves to ensuring that every family has dignified housing, access to drinking water, a toilet, reliable sources of energy for lighting, cooking and improving their homes; that every neighbourhood has streets, squares, schools, hospitals, areas for sport, recreation and art; that basic services are provided to each of you; that your appeals and your pleas for greater opportunity can be heard; that all can enjoy the peace and security which they rightfully deserve on the basis of their infinite human dignity.

Mungu awabariki! God bless you!

And I ask you, please, do not forget to pray for me.

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Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Posted on November 28, 2015 by Deacon Bob

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for Thanksgiving Day, 2015

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Thanksgiving Homily, 2015
Sir 50: 20-24; 1 Cor 1: 3-9; Lk 21: 20-28

For what am I most grateful? Health? Life itself? Good fortune? My wife and family? The gift of Holy Orders into which I have been ordained? The Eucharist? My parents and siblings? My country? I could go on.

 

Yes, I am deeply grateful for all those things. I am the luckiest of all men, for I have been given much. Yet, I am most grateful for something else. I am grateful for the gift of faith which allows me to see God’s presence even in the darkest of times. With faith, I will get to heaven. Without it, I will be tormented. As we heard in the Gospel today, gratitude linked with faith brings salvation.

My health will someday leave me. My life on earth will someday end. My good fortune may take a turn for the worse. Without faith, my ministry will dry up, my reverence for the Eucharist will vanish, my pride in my country will erode, my family relationships will suffer without faith.

On a natural level, we want to be thankful for the good things of life. We know it’s only fair to be grateful for those things and people. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the virtue of gratitude is an extension of the cardinal virtue of justice and it is part of the natural law in every human being born into the world. It is part of our human nature to show such gratitude because it keeps us in harmony with others. Gratitude is an expression of basic human justice and it is an antidote to conflict and division among us. To be grateful is simply doing the right thing, the moral thing.

It is almost instinctual for humans to be grateful for the good things of life and to those who provide these good things to us. A grateful person, generally speaking, is a healthy person. A grateful person is usually at greater peace with himself and others than someone who is ungrateful. It is easy to like someone who is grateful for life and for the good things he enjoys. It is easy to give thanks for the good things of life, the pleasant and the beautiful things that are given to us, the things that give us comfort and security in life. It is natural to be grateful for these things.

So, if you want to be a better human being, practice gratitude. If you want a happier family life, practice gratitude. If you want peace in your relationships with neighbors and friends, practice gratitude because it will make you a more just person and others will respond favorably to you.

 

I know there are many people who seem to have little for which to be grateful, whose lives are truly painful, challenging, filled with problems and difficulties. It is their reality and they didn’t choose it. Thanksgiving day may be one more difficulty you face, not having family to be with, or peace in your life, or good things to enjoy. So I address you also.

 

Have faith! Yes, I know that is easy to say, and difficult to live. But have faith! It is difficult is to be grateful for the unpleasant, the difficult, the pain, the problems. It takes real faith to be grateful for the struggles, the challenges, the setbacks, the illnesses, and other naturally unpleasant and difficult things of life. It takes faith to see the presence of God working a miracle in you, desiring to make something beautiful out of it.

 

Remember, God doesn’t created bad things or desire your pain in life, but he allows it to be so he can transform it into a time of grace. God wants to give you life and love when you are distressed. Nothing is impossible for God, so he allows those difficult times in life, those setbacks, problems, illnesses into your life so he can take and transform them into something very beautiful, very grace-filled, something that will make you more life him — in other words — holy. In this way, if you have faith, faith which illuminates the hand of God at work in our lives, you can truly say you are grateful for those difficult times and events in our lives. I know I am asking something that seems unnatural and very difficult, but we have Jesus himself to show us how to do it, and many saints also.

 

No problem, no difficulty, no darkness that may come upon you can overcome the light of faith and the love of God for you. No matter how dark or bleak things may be, as long there is the light of faith, that faith will be a light that will mark the presence of God and allow him to take that darkness and turn it into light. For this kind of faith, I am most grateful.

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Pope Francis Greets Deacons on the Occasion of their 50th Year Jubilee in Rome

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Pope Francis was to have given an audience to deacons from around the world who were gathering in Rome last month for a Jubilee celebrating 50 years since the Vatican Council restored the diaconate as a permanent rank in the Church. A fellow diaconate director from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Deacon Roger Heidt, attended and gave a report recently to the Region VIII deacon directors about his time there. From what he has said, it was memorable, to say the least.

Unfortunately, the Holy Father had to cancel his audience with the deacons and their wives because of the Synod on the family that was occurring at the same time. He did send his greetings though. I was able to locate his letter on the International Diaconate Centre’s (IDC) website, and I copy it below for your review. It is, I believe, the first time the Holy Father directly addressed the diaconate during his pontificate.

Here it is, as provided by the IDC:

Dear Brothers in the Diaconate,
dear Brothers in the Presbyterate and Episcopate,
dear wives of deacons,
dear participants in the Jubilee of the International Diaconate Centre,

I send you warm greetings and congratulate you on the 50th anniversary that you are celebrating these days on the occasion of the restoration of the Permanent Diaconate by the Second Vatican Council together with 600 people from 35 countries.

When Cardinal Oswald Gracias told me on behalf of your President Klaus Kießling that you were interested in meeting me, I agreed right away – full of anticipation to receive you. However now I have to dedicate my full attention to the Synodal processes, so a direct meeting will not be possible during your Jubilee celebration. I regret this very much and look forward to another opportunity.

In view of the first International Study Conference on the Permanent Diaconate, Paul VI stated on 25 October 1965: “Surely the Council acted in accordance with a providential inspiration of the Holy Spirit when it decided to renew the original ministry of diaconate at the service of the People of God.” It is in this conviction that I ask you not to relent in your commitment to a diaconal Universal Church and a world of solidarity. You are ambassadors of Jesus Christ who rejects anything related to authority and puts human hierarchies upside down like anyone who serves. You are ambassadors of our incarnate God who shows solidarity up until death and beyond death. You are called to accompany other people on their way to incarnation, in solidarity, everywhere in the world.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this commitment. At the same time I ask you to accompany me and my ministry with prayer. I also promise to take your concerns to the Lord and cordially impart to you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, on 20 October 2015

FRANCIS

I especially will be meditating on that one sentence, “You are ambassadors of our incarnate God who shows solidarity up until death and beyond death.” This is a confirmation, for me, of a core piece of diaconal spirituality about which I have written, i.e., the diaconal call to a spiritual martyrdom whose source is in maintaing a contemplative gaze on the uttered Word of the Father and then being available to being sent by the Father to be present to suffering humanity.

As always, I welcome your comments.

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Cycle B, 2015

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless each of you!

The Solemnity of Christ the King

Dn 7: 13-14; Rv 1: 5-8; Jn 18: 33b-37

November 21/22,2015

We are not comfortable with the word, king, nowadays. We would prefer to say President, or representative, or some other American government title. We grate at the thought of a king, and this goes deep into our American experience, all the way back to the Revolutionary War against the King of England.

Jesus, though, is our king. He has more authority over us than any president has ever had; more authority than any king has ever had in the history of the world. Jesus has made us into a kingdom, a kingdom, we are told, of truth.

Jesus gave witness to the truth. Jesus died for the truth. Jesus is the truth and his kingdom is one of eternal truth. Jesus is a king unlike the world has ever known before.

His kingdom of truth is present and evident in the world today. It is not of this world, even though it is present in the world, Jesus tells us. Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom of heaven. It is the kingdom of the Blessed Trinity, of holiness and relationship and giving and receiving divine life and love. It is the kingdom of God.

Jesus is the king of this mysterious kingdom. As we heard in the readings today, Jesus’ kingdom shall not be taken away or destroyed. “All peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” All people give to and receive from Jesus the king and from his kingdom.

In this kingdom, nothing is ever taken from us by our king, because it is the kingdom of God, the Blessed Trinity, where God only gives and receives life and love. It is a kingdom where we will never take from anyone, or be taken by anyone, but rather we will give and receive God’s presence, his life, his love. It is no wonder Pilate could not understand such a kingdom, or such a king like Jesus.

Think for a moment. God is all. He is complete in himself. He is perfect in every way. Jesus is God incarnate. Jesus is complete and perfect. He needs nothing. He only desires to give and receive love. He is the “Alpha” and the “Omega,” the beginning and the end. We cannot take anything from him because he has no need for anything we possess; rather, Jesus only gives and receives. He is God, and he lives in the great mystery of the Trinity where the Father continually gives and receives love from the Son, and the Son gives and receives love from the Father so much so that the Holy Spirit is present. Father, Son, and Spirit, one God. The Father never takes anything from the Son or the Spirit, nor the Son and Spirit take anything from the Father. The life of the Trinity is a constant giving and receiving love and life and relationship and presence, never taking, always glorifying, sustaining, and magnifying each other as distinct persons but one God.

The amazing thing is Jesus, our king, wants us to be with him in this mysterious kingdom of the Trinity!

The world demands and takes from us. Worldly kingdoms tax us and take what they need from us, but God lacks nothing for he is complete. He has no need to take from us. He wants only to receive our freely given love. He wants us to be in a relationship with him in his kingdom. He wants to give us life, love, encouragement, direction, yes even correction and discipline, and he wants us to know the truth. God only wants to receive us into his very life, the life of the Trinity.

Jesus our king wants to take us to sit with him in heaven at the right hand of the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit!

Remember, Jesus told Pilate that he was a king because he came into the world to witness to the truth, in the power of the Spirit. Jesus is our king, and we have no need to fear him for his kingdom is life in the Trinity. It is a kingdom we all will hopefully one day fully enjoy in heaven where we will behold the beauty of God’s self-giving and receiving, and be caught up in it ourselves.

Is Jesus your king? Is this the kind of kingdom you want to live in for all eternity?

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May It Be So

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Deacon Bob
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Random Thoughts: Loneliness, Complexity, and Relationship in Christian Life

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Deacon Bob

It has been a number of weeks since my last posting, and for good reason. My responsibilities for the diaconal community in our diocese has increased including coordinating the annual retreat last week. It was a wonderful experience for us as a community. Deacon James Keating was our retreat director, and he inspired, healed, prayed, and challenged us all. We were blessed.

Seeking God in the ordinary has been the focus of so much of what has been going on. To take an idea offered by Keating, it  is not breadth which is important in our Catholic lives, but depth, i.e., seeking to plummet the depths of the ordinary in daily life. No doubt, this  is so much in keeping with diaconal spirituality, but not only we deacons, but Christians of whatever vocation. The complexity of  life can both be the work of Satan and his fertile field. Complexity leads to loneliness and loneliness is a source of all that is not holy. I was impressed with the idea that if we wish to do something to end sin in this world, we can simply relate to others, break out of our loneliness and break into the loneliness of others.

This whole idea relating to others as a remedy for sin makes the case for search for depth in the ordinary. How else can we truly be in relationship unless we enter into the silence of what is ordinary and avoid  the cacophony of complexity, the cultural norm of distraction from ourselves and each other? What we are talking about here is echoed in a talk I hear a professor give this  past year on the Catholic understanding of rest, a rest in which we truly encounter ourselves and each other, rather than enter into a world of distraction.

Breaking out of loneliness and into the quiet relatedness of the ordinary is another way of describing what the theologians among call kenosis or a  self-emptying so as to be taken up into what is of God. Here is where it becomes particularly pertinent to the deacon’s spirituality. As I have written in an article entitled, “The Diaconal Call to a Spiritual Martyrdom” published in the Josephinum Diaconate Review (JDR), a deacon’s glory lies in, and his vocation is lived out in, the encounter with the exigencies of the human condition, in the ordinariness of life where the pain of life  is experienced. The deacon cannot know glory unless he is  willing to relate to, become starkly aware of, the suffering of others and suffer himself in his presence to the pain of others. He must relate, break into the loneliness of contemporary complexity, and in his impotency to do much, be present to and give witness to the brokenness of life, living a simple life.

Much more can be said. Watch for my next article in the JDR.

 

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Deacon Bob’s Homily for 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless all!

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B, 2015

29th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B

Isaiah 53:10-11; Heb 4: 14-16; Mk 10: 35-45

October 17/18, 2015

I don’t know how many of us sitting here today have witnessed someone suffer and die. If you have served in the Armed Forces in a combat zone, no doubt you have. Others may have been present with a loved one as they suffered and died, and there was nothing you could do.

What is our response when this happens? Fear? Anger? Numbness and denial? Compassion?

In our Gospel today, what we didn’t hear was right before today’s passage, Jesus had told his Apostles that he was going to suffer and die. Immediately, James and John, almost in complete denial, make a demand of Jesus.

“Teacher, do for us what we ask of you. Give us privilege and honor!” When we hear this demand placed on the Lord by James and John, we get like the other ten Apostles, don’t we? We find such a demand rather arrogant, almost “adolescent.”

God, give me what I want!

What did Jesus do when he heard it? He asked two questions: 1.) Can you drink the cup I will drink?” and 2) “Will be baptized with the same baptism with which I will be baptized?”

In the Gospel of Mark, anytime we hear of the “cup” that Jesus drinks, or the “baptism” he undergoes, Mark is talking about Jesus’ suffering and death. So Jesus asked James and John, “Can you suffer and die with me?”

These are questions all of us need to ask ourselves. Can we drink the cup of Christ? Will I go where Jesus has gone, even to Calvary, the Cross? Maybe we should meditate on this each time we approach Holy Communion to receive the cup of the Blood of Christ, the cup of his suffering. Do we consider in receiving his Blood we are sharing his suffering?

If we follow Jesus, we end up drinking the cup; we end up being baptized. Yes, we will drink the cup! We will suffer in serving the will of God for us, which means the means to salvation for us lies in serving God and each other. This is the suffering, the “cup,” the “baptism,” because we must let go of ourselves, our will, our plans, our egos, and embrace the will of God and become a servant to those in need. To let go of all of that and embrace the Lord and those in need, that requires a kind of suffering.

But we are an adolescent people all too often. We often have adolescent prayers and demands: “I want you to do for me what I want! I want to be special, to have power and glory, to be the star of the team.” We act like we want to be God, don’t we? Our spiritual lives are stunted. We haven’t moved beyond the tenth grade in our search for spiritual maturity. “I want people to bow to me and my will, not me to theirs.”

It is interesting that James and John, the two Apostles closest to Jesus, were the ones to make the demands which revealed their spiritual adolescence. Yes, even the most “religious” among us still have a long way to go at times. Satan can get us to fall into a rather prideful arrogant sense of self-importance. Yet, Jesus says  that he is a servant, one who attends to the needs of others and gives his life and his will over to the will of the Father so much so that he says it is not his place to award places of honor to his followers; only God the Father does that. Jesus says that he is a servant even to the point of dying for us. He serves us and his Father by giving up his life so others may live. Here we see Jesus the Deacon, i.e., the one who serves.

Jesus’ glory was in his servanthood, in being a good deacon, in serving the needs of others, in fulfilling the Father’s will. Jesus tells us that to be his followers is to be a servant, to let go of ourselves and our adolescent grasping for power, prestige and success, and embracing the needs of someone else by serving them.

The spiritually mature person says, “Let me drink from you cup!” which is to say, “Let me bear your need, your pain, your distress, your sadness, your illness, your loneliness, your discouragement, your fear, your confusion, your loss, your  grief, your poverty.” It is to say to every unwed mother, “I will support your child” and to every frightened and hidden foreigner or refugee in our midst, “I will welcome you” and to every elderly person in this parish who is in the nursing home, hospital or shut-in their own homes, “I will visit you” and to every newly married couple, “I will support and advise your marriage.” It is to say to every dying person, “I will be with you as you suffer and die for you are precious in my eyes in your suffering.” It is to say to the confused teenager, “I’ve been there. Follow me, and I will show you the way.”

God offers you the cup. He has the cup in his hands and he extends it to you, saying, “Will you drink from it, the cup from which I drank, the cup given me by the Father?” Our glory lies in drinking from the same cup as Jesus drank. Meditate on this when you receive the Blood of Christ at communion time. You are drinking from the same cup of salvation, of suffering from which Jesus drank.

Don’t be afraid of suffering in this way. Don’t be afraid to experience the needs, the sufferings of others by serving them. Don’t be afraid to conform your will to the will of God for you by knowing him, loving him, and by serving the needs of others as a true servant, giving your life so others may live.

“For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

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Quote for the Day

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Deacon Bob

“Blessed is the brother that would love his brother in illness, when the brother cannot be of use to him, as much as he loves him in health, when he can be of use to him.” — St. Francis of Assisi

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Photo for the Day

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Deacon Bob
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Men of Faith, Read This.

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Deacon Bob

Bishop Olmsted from the Diocese of Phoenix, has released an apostolic exhortation to all men of the faith. It is entitled, Into the Breach. 

Might I suggest that you read it? Here is an excerpt:

 “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land…” Ezekiel 22:30

A Call to Battle I begin this letter with a clarion call and clear charge to you, my sons and brothers in Christ: Men, do not hesitate to engage in the battle that is raging around you, the battle that is wounding our children and families, the battle that is distorting the dignity of both women and men. This battle is often hidden, but the battle is real. It is primarily spiritual, but it is progressively killing the remaining Christian ethos in our society and culture, and even in our own homes. The world is under attack by Satan, as our Lord said it would be (1 Peter 5:8-14). This battle is occurring in the Church herself, and the devastation is all too evident. Since AD 2000, 14 million Catholics have left the faith, parish religious education of children has dropped by 24%, Catholic school attendance has dropped by 19%, infant baptism has dropped by 28%, adult baptism has dropped by 31%, and sacramental Catholic marriages have dropped by 41%.1 This is a serious breach, a gaping hole in Christ’s battle lines. While the Diocese of Phoenix has fared better than these national statistics, the losses are staggering. One of the key reasons that the Church is faltering under the attacks of Satan is that many Catholic men have not been willing to “step into the breach” – to fill this gap that lies open and vulnerable to further attack. A large number have left the faith, and many who remain “Catholic” practice the faith timidly and are only minimally committed to passing the faith on to their children. Recent research shows that large numbers of young Catholic men are leaving the faith to become “nones” – men who have no religious affiliation. The growing losses of young Catholic men will have a devastating impact on the Church in America in the coming decades, as older men pass away and young men fail to remain and marry in the Church, accelerating the losses that have already occurred.

To read the entire exhortation, go to: Into the Breach

To browse the website, go to:  Into the Breach Website

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Holy Father’s Words to the Victims of Sexual Abuse

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Deacon Bob

The Holy Father met today with several victims of sexual abuse. Not all were abused by clergy but his message is clear.

As I have been doing, I let you read the pope’s words without commentary from me

MEETING WITH SEX ABUSE VICTIMS: ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

St. Charles Borromeo Seminary,Philadelphia
Sunday, 27 September 2015

My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ, I am grateful for this opportunity to meet you, I am blessed by your presence. Thank you for corning here today.

Words cannot fully express my sorrow for the abuse you suffered. You are precious children of God who should always expect our protection, our care and our love. I am profoundly sorry that your innocence was violated by those who you trusted. In some cases the trust was betrayed by members of your own family, in other cases by priests who carry a sacred responsibility for the care of soul. In all circumstances, the betrayal was a terrible violation of human dignity.

For those who were abused by a member of the clergy, I am deeply sorry for the times when you or your family spoke out, to report the abuse, but you were not heard or believed. Please know that the Holy Father hears you and believes you. I deeply regret that some bishops failed in their responsibility to protect children. It is very disturbing to know that in some cases bishops even were abusers. I pledge to you that we will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead. Clergy and bishops will be held accountable when they abuse or fail to protect children.

We are gathered here in Philadelphia to celebrate God’s gift of family life. Within our family of faith and our human families, the sins and crimes of sexual abuse of children must no longer be held in secret and in shame. As we anticipate the Jubilee Year of Mercy, your presence, so generously given despite the anger and pain you have experienced, reveals the merciful heart of Christ. Your stories of survival, each unique and compelling, are powerful signs of the hope that comes from the Lord’s promise to be with us always.

It is good to know that you have brought family members and friends with you today. I am grateful for their compassionate support and pray that many people of the Church will respond to the call to accompany those who have suffered abuse. May the Door of Mercy be opened wide in our dioceses, our parishes, our homes and our hearts, to receive those who were abused and to seek the path to forgiveness by trusting in the Lord. We promise to support your continued healing and to always be vigilant to protect the children of today and tomorrow.

When the disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus recognized that He was the Risen Lord, they asked Jesus to stay with them. Like those disciples, I humbly beg you and all survivors of abuse to stay with us, to stay with the Church, and that together, as pilgrims on the journey of faith, we might find our way to the Father.

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