Sunday, March 28, 2010

Where would/did Jesus stand?

I've just finished reading Fr. Greg Boyle's Tattoos on the Heart. It's a powerful book, and, once started, very hard to put down. Here is a man who has put his life -- humbly, firmly, and imperfectly -- where his mouth is.

"Mouth" calls to mind the great, divisive polarization that has so gripped our country, our Church, and our world. I don't believe that God's going to punish the world because of pro-choice abortion policies nor for racist anti-immigrant attitudes and policies, both of which are morally reprehensible if we take Jesus' teachings seriously. God's going to punish us by simply letting our own unwillingness to find common ground with those we disagree with to reach its logical and inevitable conclusion: self-destructive polarization. Armed camps bent on mutual destruction.

I like Greg Boyle's take on this. He doesn't try to "philosophize" as much as I do, and so his straightforward simplicity is very appealing. I'm going to quote at length, hoping I'll be forgiven a potential copyright transgression by promoting sale of a few copies. (Check it out on Amazon.com, and be sure to watch the video on that page.)

Success and failure, ultimately, have little to do with living the gospel. Jesus just stood with outcasts until they were welcomed or until he was crucified--whichever came first.

The American poet Jack Gilbert writes, "The pregnant heart is driven in hopes that are the wrong size for this world." The strategy and stance of Jesus was consistent in that it was always out of step with the world. Jesus defied all the categories upon which the world insisted: good-evil, success-failure, pure-impure. Surely, He was an equal-opportunity "pisser-offer" in this regard. The right wing would stare at Him and question where He chose to stand. They hated that He aligned Himself with the unclean, those outside--those folks you ought neither to touch nor be near. He hobnobbed with the leper, shared table fellowship with the sinner, and rendered Himself ritually impure in the process. They found it offensive that, to boot, Jesus had no regard for their wedge issues, their constitutional amendments or their culture wars.

The Left was equally annoyed. they wanted to see the ten-point plan, the revolution in high gear, the toppling of sinful social structures. They were impatient with His brand of solidarity. They wanted to see Him taking the right stand on issues, not just standing in the right place.

But Jesus just stood with the outcast. The Left screamed: "Don't just stand there, do something." And the Right maintained: "Don't stand with those folks at all." Both sides, seeing Jesus as the wrong size for this world, came to their own reasons for wanting Him dead. (pp. 172-173)
For my part, I know I have to keep calling myself back to the understanding, which I preach so often, that God doesn't want our success, God wants our fidelity. God grants success in God's own way, not as we humans like to measure it.

If you're not familiar with Homeboy Industries, check out their website. Perhaps even get a "virtual carwash." I did.


Parish Director of Administration Search


(Note: this was the "Pastor's Reflection" for the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, March 28, 1010.)


What does it mean for a pastor to "run a parish"?

I think the expectation -- conscious or unconscious -- most people have is that the pastor is (or should be) omnicompetent and omnipotent -- makes all the decisions and carries them out flawlessly and to everyone's satisfaction, including, of course, God's.

That's not the real world anywhere else, nor is it in the Church.

After my first nine months as your pastor of watching and listening, as well as reflecting, consulting, and praying, I am launching a search for a parish Director of Administration. This will be the person who will directly manage all business, financial, and organizational aspects of the parish, including supervision of staff and facilities. There is currently no one, except the pastor, who has real responsibility and authority in all these areas. It's impossible for one human being to try to maintain sole control in a situation like this, and crazy-making to even try. I need a partner who will serve essentially as my right hand -- parish COO, if you will -- in all the management responsibilities involved in running the parish.

That will free me to be, well, a pastor. Like I was ordained to do.

Our current business consultant, Bill Vondrasek, is chairing a search committee which will recruit applicants, review resumes, and interview the strongest potential candidates. Bill will be joined by Barbara Gunning, Bill Gould, and Rob Weiler, who are members of either the parish Pastoral Council or the Finance Council. Rounding out the committee will be Mary Jean Neault, who served as Director of Administration in my previous parish, and is currently Director of Pastoral Ministries there. Nobody knows "the field" as well as she does.

I hope by the first week of May, when I return from the Early Christian World Pilgrimage in Turkey, they will be able to present several top candidates for me to interview and make the final selection.

In addition to a full complement of administrative and managerial skills, this person must have knowledge and experience in how the Catholic parish works, both as institution and as community. This means prior experience in Church administration is a requirement.

The position opening is being publicized among a rather specialized target audience throughout the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, but anyone who believes himself or herself qualified is welcome to apply. The salary will be commensurate with Archdiocesan scale, taking into account the person's qualifications. If you know anyone who may be qualified and interested, encourage them to send a resume and a written letter of interest to Bill Vondrasek, in care of the Good Shepherd Parish Office, 504 N. Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills, 90210.

Please offer a prayer or two that the right person will surface who can effectively partner with me to serve the parish community well in this vital role.

God bless you always. I love you.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Come with us on the Pilgrimage


(Note: this was the "Pastor's Reflection" for the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin, March 21, 2010)


These days, as we prepare to celebrate the mysteries of our redemption, the Passion-Death-Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Paschal Mystery), I am also preparing to leave the day after Easter on the Early Christian World Pilgrimage to Turkey.

This will be the fourth such Pilgrimage I've led in the weeks following Easter. For many reasons -- spiritual, practical and aesthetic -- that's the only time to go. Even the inconvenience of the timing is a part of the grace: true Pilgrimage, after all, does involve hardship too.

Transformation is at the heart of the Paschal Mystery, and at the heart of Pilgrimage. Our Early Christian World Pilgrims of past year almost unanimously describe it as a "life-changing experience."

I'm always aware that the majority of people simply cannot come on this kind of journey, and there are many valid reasons for this. I have always felt compelled to try to share the benefits of the Pilgrimage as widely as possible. That's one reason why meetings to study and prepare have always be open to anyone. I have found that studying and praying with the ancient men and women of great wisdom we encounter while walking through history has enriched my own understanding and life of faith as a Catholic, and many of these insights find their way into my homilies. I've also been able to share bits and pieces of the Pilgrimage experience in videos I've uploaded to YouTube. There's also a lot of wonderful resources on the internet that enable anyone to gain much by virtually making the journey.

This year, I hope to be able to intentionally and systematically include you -- all of you who may want to come along virtually and have access to the internet on a computer. We are a small group of Pilgrims, only eleven plus me. That means we can all participate in sharing with you. This will probably take written form as well as pictures and video. We have a Pilgrimage website at http://ecwpilgrimage.org which will serve as a portal for all the resources we can put online. We also have an "Early Christian World Pilgrimage" Facebook Group. Join and you can make this an interactive experience, posting comments and discussion along the way. These are wonderful technological resources, and they can serve to help and enhance our faith in ways undreamed of in the past.

I'll be gone the whole month of April and the first few days of May. When the Pilgrimage formally ends on April 28, I'm planning to stay over the weekend in Istanbul. I've never yet had the chance to explore that marvelous city on my own, and I'm really looking forward to that few days of vacation.

"Mystagogia" is the time when newly initiated Christians are invited to explore and study the "Mysteries" of our faith, especially the sacraments. Our Pilgrimage provides the ideal occasion for this kind of exploration; it's really an immersion into our heritage of faith. Come with us, at least virtually and in spirit.

I'm already making plans for next year's Pilgrimage. It will be a little shorter and a bit later -- Easter is quite late next year. It will begin on Wednesday, April 27, 2011, in Istanbul (you have to leave a day or two before that), and will conclude on Saturday, May 14. It seems a long way off, but if you start planning and arranging your schedule now, it may be more possible than if you wait. Think and pray about it.

May these last weeks of Lent be filled with grace for you and all those you love. I love you.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Lent with the Elect

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin for March 14, 2010)

Scrutiny.

Now there's a scary word. While I was growing up the word always carried with it a sense of threat, judgment, and impending doom. Like the feeling I got when, as a sixth grader, I had neglected to study for the spelling test.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines scrutiny as "a close, careful examination or study." When I'm trying to figure out the meaning of a word as we uses it today, I always find it helpful to explore the origin of the word. Looking at what how it came to us and how it developed through history reveals nuances of meaning that a mere definition can't express. So where did the word "scrutiny" come from?

First of all, it's from the Latin word scrutari, meaning "to search." So far so good. But behind simple answers there often lurks a telling surprise. That word comes from an earlier word scruta, meaning "trash."

So scrutiny originally means "looking for garbage." No wonder the word is scary. But that understanding enhances rather than diminishes its importance for a those who are sincerely seeking to change and renew their lives during Lent.

The authentic, ancient tradition of the Church never viewed conversion as a merely private matter. Those seeking to become disciples of Jesus Christ do so publicly in communion (fellowship) with the community of believers.

That's why the Second Vatican Council, nearly half a century ago, calling for us today to go back and learn from our origins and heritage, restored the ancient process of Christian Initiation involving a communal journey of growth in faith and life, characterized by well-defined steps and public rites marking transitions from one stage to the next. During Lent, the whole community is invited to join in a spirit of prayer and self-examination with those, now called the Elect, who are on the final leg of their journey to full initiation into the Catholic Church.

Lent, for all of us, is a time of quite literally searching for and getting rid of the garbage of our lives in order to provide hospitality for our Risen Lord who comes to share his life with us.

On the three middle Sundays of Lent we celebrate the Scrutinies with the Elect. These moments of self-searching, illuminated by three very striking Gospel events, are truly joyful because the task at hand is making way for our Savior who is also our eternal Lover.

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) tells us the "the Scrutinies are meant to uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the Elect; to bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong, and good" (#141). It goes on to say:

First of all, the Elect are instructed gradually about the mystery of sin, from which the whole world and every person longs to be delivered and thus saved from its present and future consequences. Second, their spirit is filled with Christ the Redeemer, who is the living water (Gospel of the Samaritan woman in the First Scrutiny), the light of the world (Gospel of the man born blind in the Second Scrutiny) the resurrection and the life (gospel of Lazarus in the Third Scrutiny). From the first to the final Scrutiny the Elect should progress in their perception of sin and their desire for salvation. (#143)

And we all do this along with them, gaining inspiration from their dedication and supporting them with our example and prayers. We can always profit from taking difficult things to heart, even the word "scrutiny."

I love you.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

A good story . . .

(Note: this was my "pastor's reflection" in the Good Shepherd Parish Bulletin for March 7, 2010.)

A good story is always worth repeating, perhaps revealing some new insight in the retelling. I first heard this story many years ago, but when it reappeared in an email a few days ago, it seemed an especially appropriate reflection as we walk together through Lent.

Many years ago, the story goes, a mother wanted to encourage her young son’s progress in learning the piano. She took him to a concert featuring the renowned Polish pianist, Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Once seated, the mother spotted a friend and went over to greet her. Seizing the opportunity to explore the concert hall, the little boy wandered away from his seat, and finding a door labeled “No Admittance,” he pushed it open. As the house lights dimmed, the mother returned to her seat and discovered her son was missing. Suddenly, the stage curtains parted and in the spotlights focused on the impressive Steinway on stage, the horrified mother saw the little boy sitting at the keyboard innocently picking out, note by note, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”

At that moment, the great Paderewski made his entrance onto the stage. He quickly moved to the piano and whispered in the boy’s ear, “Don’t stop. Keep playing!” Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in a bass part. He reached around to the other side of the child and he added a running obbligato with his right hand. Together, the old master and the young novice transformed an unexpected situation into a wonderfully creative experience.

It really doesn't matter too much whether this story is true, in sense of factual. It's true insofar as it resonates with something in our lives. Whatever our feeble efforts at being faithful disciples of Jesus may be, do we hear him whisper, "Don't stop. Keep on." Can we believe that he is transforming our lives into something wonderful to fulfill his creative designs?

I love you.