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COLUMNS
» Believe as you Pray
» Family Ties
» In Light of Faith
 
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, September 16, 2007
by Genevieve McQuade
I am not the only one who has ever lost everything on their computer. To me, however, it was a considerable loss. Search as I did, I eventually reconstituted onto another computer only a portion of what I once had.
To what lengths might you go to retrieve a credit card left who-knows-where, or your vehicle’s registration when that vehicle must be inspected, or a package left behind? More serious events could be mentioned.
We might take many measures to remember what we were doing to recapture the point of loss and succeed in finding whatever it is we want, or need, back. If unable to regain our loss, our best option may be to let go of it rather than piling on fruitless efforts.
This week, losses abound in our readings. Exodus 32:7–9 describes how a “stiff-necked people” veer away from God, losing their orientation towards him. In Luke 15, we have a woman’s misplaced coin; a shepherd’s wandering sheep; and lastly, an inheritance, potentially a destiny, recklessly wasted by an impetuous son.
Some took all kinds of action to retrieve what was presumed lost; the Israelites unknowingly had Moses as an intercessor on their behalf. Perhaps they experienced confusion, fear, or anxiety. Their intense hunt reveals what significance these items held for these searchers.
All our readings, however, are more about God’s mercy towards us, yet are related to such losses. What greater loss could there possibly be than that of God’s steadfast embrace, our salvation? Is that potential loss significant for us?
It is striking to grasp the contrast between the many actions we would take to recover what we’ve lost and the single act needed to “find” God, to receive his mercy, namely, our whole-hearted return. Do we really have to take excessive action or get our lives in order first?
One thing is needed — a contrite heart. All we need to do is repent. Can we let go of our hardness of heart? Like Paul, can we leave behind any unrepentance and be forever transformed (1 Timothy 1:13 & 16)? Can we lose our self-preoccupation to find God? Can’t we just love Him?
That kind of loss tops all other losses. It is then that we are able to receive God’s mercy. Finding we are not really self-reliant, we discover we have no other recourse but to return to God. We can regain our inheritance. Like Paul, can we too respond by accepting the mercy of our Intercessor, Christ Jesus? Can we express deep gratitude?
God habitually extends his love. God’s mercy awaits our homecoming, which can’t come soon enough for him to celebrate his extravagant joy for us.
Our core truth is that we cannot take the extreme extent of God’s mercy for granted nor minimize it nor ignore it. Not a mere portion but rather the wholeness of our cleansed spirit is restored by the abundance of God’s mercy. We are changed by the fullness of divine life coming home again, within us!
Abundant sin — abundant loss — abundant gift. Our lives and his super-abundant mercy merge in a dynamic interchange flowing from God’s love, despite our unworthiness. Can we ever appreciate God’s mercy enough?
“To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim 1:17)
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Communication with family takes effort
by Mary Hood Hart
Our 16-year-old is an expert when it comes to communicating with her friends. She has mastered the arts of text-messaging, instant messaging, and extended cell phone conversations.
Judging by the amount of time she spends communicating with her friends in a single day, I can’t imagine Anna has left a thought unspoken.
Yet when it comes to her communication with her family, particularly her father and me, we struggle.
The other evening I was attempting to extract some information about an upcoming event. The answers she offered were monosyllabic and vague. She was paying more attention to a television show than to me.
In the end, I lost my patience and demanded she turn off the set. Then, I launched into an explanation about how important it was to communicate with those she lives with, particularly since she relies on us for transportation and other needs. In the end, she felt I was lecturing her.
While I understand that teenagers need to create their social networks and become deeply engaged with their peers, I also recognize the need for family interaction. We who are parents of teens find ourselves constantly competing with technology and our children’s busy schedules to find that “quality” time that all healthy relationships require. It is a juggling act I have yet to master, even having experienced it now with four teens.
It occurs to me that this frustration I experience trying to communicate with my teen-age daughter is similar, perhaps, to how God must feel in trying to communicate with His beloved children. With so many distractions clamoring for our attention, especially in our current culture, we find it compelling to communicate with everyone but God.
Or, when we communicate with God, we simply present our needs and wants to God in the hope, the expectation, they will be fulfilled. This is also similar to communication with a teenager.
Too often at my house I feel as if I function more as a chauffeur and ATM machine than a mom. Needs and wants are easily communicated. (“May I have lunch money?” “I need a ride home from practice tomorrow.”)
Meaningful conversations are harder to extract, especially if we try to demand them. Imagine trying this tactic: “OK, young lady, sit down here and talk with me! You’re not leaving the room until you share your deepest thoughts and feelings.”
That approach, of course, is absurd, doomed to failure from the start.
What is required for meaningful communication in family life is an appropriate environment and an attitude of openness. What is an appropriate environment? I would suggest it’s an environment consisting of two critical components: being there and being still. “Being there” means being present to one another in a conscious way. “Being still” means being present to one another without distraction.
How can we arrange that? By scheduling times we are together in a casual way without any competition from technology. Mealtimes are the perfect opportunities for meaningful communication, as long as we eat without distraction, particularly from television, telephones, PDAs, Ipods, etc. Sometimes we parents are as guilty of allowing these distractions to interfere with our relationships as our teens are.
Intimacy requires communication. A tragic consequence of our current way of life is that it’s possible to live as a family without meaningful interaction, without forming the bonds of intimacy.
In the same way, an intimate relationship with God requires our being there and being still. We do this by opening ourselves to the possibility of encountering God in both the structured and unstructured periods of our day, and by listening for God to speak to us in the stillness of our hearts, as well as through the people and events in our lives.
Not a cradle Catholic, I’ve been told that the nuns used to teach children about prayer by using the acronym ACTS. A stands for adoration. C stands for contrition. T for Thanksgiving. S for supplication. To make the vocabulary more accessible for family life, we can translate ACTS to: Adoration means saying “I love you.” Contrition means saying “I’m sorry.” Thanksgiving means saying “thank you.” And supplication means saying “I need you.”
Throughout the day, both as members of a household and members of God’s family, we must express our love, offer our apologies, extend our thanks, and acknowledge our dependence on God and one another.
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Bridge of Faiths
by Barbara Hughes
As we enter the sixth year since the tragedy of 9/11, a few reflections seem appropriate. We’ve heard over and over that since 9/11 the world is a different place.
Some changes are more obvious than others. Increased security measures, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and violence worldwide have become daily reminders that we are a far cry from life as we had known it prior to 9/11. But some changes have been more subtle.
The importance of dialogue with those who pose a threat has become increasingly more important. Finding common ground is actively sought on a variety of levels as we seek to understand and appreciate not only similarities but differences as well. This value has been widely acknowledged by politicians and heads of state. At the same time, the importance of dialogue between Christians and Muslims has also become a matter of importance.
Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict the XVI have stressed the importance of these two faiths coming together in an atmosphere of mutual respect. And yet, their suggestions are barely a blip on the radar screen for most Catholics.
Many don’t see the relevance; others may not know where to begin. Papal visits to mosques or popes praying with the leaders of Islam have contributed to the notion that interreligious dialogue is for church hierarchy, not the average person in the pew.
It’s a conundrum that I have struggled with ever since I became involved with Jews and Muslims on a local level. As a Catholic lay person: what is my role and what can I do?
The words of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen may cast some light on the situation. In 1952 America’s most recognizable cleric wrote, “Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion with the full realization that our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her Divine Son.”
His words seem both prophetic and reminiscent of the message that has echoed through the decades that confirm Mary in her role as Queen of Peace. Perhaps, the reason we struggle with interreligious relations is that we think we have to make peace happen when in reality only God can change hearts. And who better to take people of faiths to God than the Mother of God?
Archbishop Sheen’s words stand as a reminder of a truth that Catholic tradition has long proclaimed, which is that Mary has a significant role to play on the path to peace. If ever there was a link to peace, it seems it’s the mother whom both Christians and Muslims revere.
A closer look reveals common ground.
The Koran includes more than 35 references to Mary, more than are cited in the Bible. Equally notable is the fact that the Koran devotes chapters to the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Nativity and celebrates the Immaculate Conception with words of praise, “O! Mary, God has chosen you and purified you and elected you above all women of the earth.”
Defending Mary’s virginity, the Koran offers a dialogue from the Apocryphal Gospel of Mary which supposedly took place between Mary and Joseph. During the purported conversation Mary said, “Do you not know that God when he created the wheat had no need of seed and that God by his power made trees grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say, ‘So be it’ and it was done.”
The Koran, like the Bible, is not meant to be taken as a science book. It’s a book meant to instruct, guide and inspire and so these words from the Koran can serve to inspire all who believe in the virgin birth.
On Nightingale Mountain in Turkey, just outside Ephesus, is a house that is believed to be the place where Mary spent the last 10 years of her life. During the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem, it seems probable that the apostle John took Mary to a place that was safe, where the Christian community was established and flourishing. Ephesus was such a place.
The house remains a shrine and place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims alike. By the side of the altar are quotes referencing the Blessed Mother which are taken, not from the Bible, but from the Koran.
The house was re-discovered in 1890 during an expedition led by Father Eugene Poulin to verify what Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich had seen in a vision 50 years earlier. Although it does not have official recognition, numerous popes have celebrated Mass there, most recently Pope John Paul II and Pope Paul VI.
My question then, is: why has so much common ground escaped so many for so long?
Could it be that while military powers flex their muscle and heads of state jet from country to country with little or no success, the world’s most powerful ambassador for peace has been ignored? Perhaps it’s time to once again take the words of Archbishop Sheen to heart and entrust the world to the heart of Mary.
October, the month of the Holy Rosary, is just around the corner. Perhaps it’s time to take Mary’s plea for prayer seriously.
We can begin by committing ourselves to praying the rosary while meditating on the life of her Son. So let’s begin. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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Copyright © 2006 The Catholic Virginian Press. Articles from Catholic News Services, including Fr. Dietzen’s column, may not be reproduced here due to copyright considerations.
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