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» and The Bishop Says...
 
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C, November 11, 2007
by Ann Ruggaber
At first reading, it seems a stretch to make the liturgical connection between the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel, which, in our lectionary, always go together.
The only common theme seems to be brothers dying. The first reading is the graphic account of the martyrdom of the Maccabees brother and their mother, who submitted to torture and death rather than denounce their religion.
The Gospel has the Sadducees posing a question to Jesus about a woman who marries a succession of brothers, each of whom dies, and asking to whom she would be married in the afterlife.
But I think there is a deeper connection than the brothers.
Consider the response of the Maccabees and of Jesus. Instead of matching hostility with hostility, evil with evil, they responded with non-violent fidelity, and, in both instances they exposed their challengers — as cruel torturers in the first reading and conniving liars in the second.
By standing steadfast to their God and their faith, the Maccabees became heroes and a source of inspiration to generations after them who would suffer for their religious beliefs.
By taking on the Sadducees in the Temple, the center of their power, Jesus turned the tables on those who would discredit him.
Since the Sadducees did not believe in life after death, Jesus recognized that their question was not a genuine request for knowledge, but an attempt to discredit him as a teacher. Knowing that Sadducees accepted no authority except the written Torah, Jesus quoted it in response, showing a deeper understanding than those who would use the scriptures for their own purposes.
The Sadducees, not Jesus, were the ones left looking foolish.
In later centuries, people like Archbishop Romero and Martin Luther King used the same principles to challenge evil in their use of non-violence to call attention to the brutality and duplicity they challenged.
There is a common misconception that non-violence means being a doormat. Quite the opposite, non-violence turns weakness into strength. It places the witness of truth and peace squarely against the powers of darkness.
Archbishop Romero, for example, understood that when he led the people into a captured church to remove the Blessed Sacrament in defiance of the armed soldiers who tried to prevent him from entering.
He, King, and the Maccabees knew, as Jesus did, that very likely their opposition to abuse of power would lead to their deaths. And yet, they remained steadfast and refused to give in to hatred and evil, to match violence with violence. They recognized that God’s Kingdom is more precious than life itself, and they trusted themselves to God’s care.
In a day when fists, guns, and violence are often the first response to a challenge, we would do well to think about our own way of responding to potential conflict. Do we trust that God will hear the prayer of Paul in the second reading, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the endurance of Christ”?
Our Judeo-Christian heritage gives us many models of people who acted out of inner peace and conviction and who rejected violence. Far from backing down, their response brought the eyes of the world on the evil that they opposed.
The next time we sing, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me,” let’s really mean it!
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Saints we have known on the path of life
by Mary Hood Hart
We came to know Charlie through a dear friend of ours, Michael, a priest and Charlie’s son.
Charlie lived temporarily with Michael, our pastor at the time, shortly after Charlie was widowed. Charlie, then in his 80s, developed a special affection for our youngest daughter, Anna. They shared a love of horses.
Charlie had no grandchildren of his own, and, over time, Anna began calling him her adopted grandfather. After Charlie moved to New England to live with his daughter, he and Anna maintained a regular correspondence.
Charlie grew increasingly infirm, and his letters became less frequent. We continued sending him cards and did our best to keep up with him through phone calls.
In June 2005 Charlie passed away. Though we hadn’t seen him in several years, we felt keenly the loss of his presence in our lives. Anna had just turned 14 at the time. It was the summer before her first year of high school.
The other night, I was talking with Michael on the phone, sharing with him some of the typical challenges of life with a teen-age daughter.
“I’m asking for your dad’s help with Anna,” I said (with more than a hint of exasperation in my voice).
It occurred to me after the conversation ended that calling on her adopted grandfather Charlie to help guide and protect Anna makes a great deal of sense. His particular affection for her in this life would certainly not end, indeed, it would be perfected when he entered eternal life.
The older I get, the more people I know who have died. That’s a fact of life, but it’s one I never considered until recently.
That means, of course, that the older I get the more people I know in the communion of saints. Indeed, it’s as if there’s an ever-growing assembly of people who’ve touched my life while they were on earth who are now touching my life from heaven. Added to that assembly are the deceased whom I’ve never met, but upon whom I can still call for intercession.
This group includes the saints of our faith tradition, but also saints like another friend’s mother, whom I never met but have heard so much about.
My friend is the youngest of six children whose father died in an accident before my friend was born in 1939. His mother devoted herself to her children even though she faced tremendous hardship and loss.
As they struggled to make ends meet, my friend’s mother always told her children how blessed they were to have so much. Her deep faith in God and her Christian virtues inspire my friend to this day. The stories of her life which he shares with me have inspired me as well.
Though I wasn’t raised Catholic and was never formally introduced to the communion of saints until I was well into adulthood, I have had no difficulty embracing the doctrine that those who have preceded us in death are deeply concerned for our welfare and will pray for us from beyond the grave.
I also take heart in believing that death has not separated us from our loved ones — that, in this life and beyond, we are all one Church, the Resurrected Body of Christ.
Indeed, during the celebration of the Eucharist, I never fail to sense the awesome power of the Holy Spirit when, singing the great “Amen,” we express our unity with all God’s people, a resounding “yes, Lord” expressed in the hearts, minds and lives of those present in the assembly as well as those elsewhere, including all who have gone before us “marked with the sign of faith.”
Anyone who has ever loved knows, without a doubt, that love doesn’t end with a person’s death. Death has no power over love.
When I was grieving after the death of my father, I received a beautiful card in which a friend had written the consoling words of St. John Chrysostom:
“He whom we love and lose is no longer where he was before. He is now wherever we are.”
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Prayer; not magic
by Barbara Hughes
Did you know that in a recent Associated Press and Ipsos poll, Catholics and non-Church goers ranked highest among those who are superstitious? Somehow this doesn’t surprise me. Every week I receive e-mails from well-intentioned believers who send prayers or religious pictures instructing me to send it on to x number of people and then wait for a miracle to follow.
The phenomenon is not new. It’s replaced chain letters and ads in the personal column of newspapers of days gone by. Those were often sent anonymously, but e-mail affords no such privacy.
What I find surprising is that these e-mails come from people whom I assume know better but for whatever reason are afraid to break the chain and so they comply. That’s superstition!
When we are motivated by fear or when miracles are guaranteed, prayer is reduced to magic and becomes occult-like in nature, even when accompanied by pictures of St. Therese of Lisieux, the Sacred Heart or Mother Teresa.
To understand the difference you might consider this: magic is about getting; prayer is about giving; magic is about control, prayer is about surrender; magic flaunts results, prayer demands faith in the absence of results, and finally magic changes the appearance of things, while prayer transforms.
Some 20 years ago, I came across a reflection entitled “Paradoxes of Prayer.” The author is listed simply as “Unknown” but his or her wisdom is worth sharing. The author wrote:
I asked God for strength that I might achieve great works; I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey…
I asked for health that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity that I might do better things…
I asked for riches that I might be happy; I was given poverty that I might be wise…
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness that I might feel the need for God…
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life; I was given life that I might enjoy all things…
I got nothing I asked for — But everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my prayers were answered… And so I am among the most richly blessed.
Prayer is about our relationship with God. The more we pray, the more that relationship deepens and more times than not, growth takes place in the presence of adversity. Prayer is not a panacea to remove suffering from our lives. In fact the opposite is true.
The closer we draw to Christ, the more suffering will enter our lives. The good news is that like the author in the reflection above, we will discover what it means to be poor in spirit and there is no greater reward. For Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will see God.”
The author found happiness and wholeness, not in a miracle that happened three days or 48 hours after reciting a prayer and passing it on but in the midst of what some might call unanswered prayers. That’s the thing about prayer. We only realize it’s been answered when we no longer feel the need for our will to be done.
Prayer changes the one whose prays, not in a matter of days or hours but over a life time of falling and rising, hurting and healing, and surrendering to the grace of God. Too often the tendency is to view prayer in isolation, particularly when praying for a cure or for the resolution to a problem. There’s no doubt that prayers of intercession are granted. People are healed, those seeking employment are hired but rather than viewing such experiences as an end, they are really only a beginning. It raises the question: what now.
Lives are changed for a reason. The cessation of pain or heart ache through prayer is not just about making someone’s life more comfortable. It serves as a reminder that to whom more is given, more will be expected. As a people we are connected. We share responsibility for one another, for our earth and for the world.
When we are touched by grace, we are called to share that grace with the community for grace is never given solely for the benefit of the person receiving it.
Being freed from pain or an earlier anxiety is an invitation to step back and view the larger picture and then pray that we will remain attentive to the way God is changing us so that we can change the world.
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The following is a continuation of an interview with Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo by Steve Neill took place in Richmond on October 4, 2007.
Have you learned if any pastors have been approached about adding a Latin Tridentine Mass to their parish Mass schedule?
I haven’t heard of anything explicitly. But we continually let people know that it is up to the local priest.
It may well be that people would want to contact the two Latin rite Mass parishes where the Tridentine rite of the liturgy is celebrated. There are two priests in the Tidewater area and one in Richmond. There are apparently very few priests of our diocese prepared to celebrate Mass in Latin. There are three or four who can do it.
Those who are interested should contact those priests at St. Benedict Chapel in Chesapeake and at St. Joseph’s Church in Richmond.
Is it optional for priests to say no, even if there are requests?
I think basically priests have to take into account several things before they say yes.
An awful lot of their time and energy should be placed in matters associated with their parish. They also have to take into account if they know how to say Mass in this way and do they have the facility to do it? Some may no longer have the skills or education necessary to do it.
As you continue in your parish visitations, do you find the people of the diocese are supportive of their parish and what are they asking of the diocesan offices to help them in their ministry?
First of all, one thing that has become very clear in my parish visitations is that there is a tremendous love and loyalty people have toward the individual parishes.
The second question is they usually seem to be asking for advice on matters concerning youth and continuing education of adults in the diocese. There are some requests for help in liturgy.
Social concerns are part of the parish life. In many cases social ministry is very well developed so they’re not asking for a lot of help in this area. They’re looking more for in-service workshops with respect to peace and justice and social outreach in their parishes because they already have that sensitivity.
Why has the diocese reduced its number of second collections?
I believe that some of the second collections after a while were supposed to have a sunset clause. When they were originally brought into existence, they had a specific period of time. Somehow or other along the way, there was never the sunset clause. We in the diocese have decided ourselves to make some changes. The current list of collections includes the Home Missions collection which serves small parishes in the rural areas of our diocese.
We had 14 special collections, reduced the list to seven and have added one so now we have eight.
There’s also significant support for the work of the diocesan Office of Refugee and Immigration Services. This year we’ve collected approximately $45,000 to help with their vital work and they never got any of it from a second collection. I have encouraged the office to repeat this effort this year.
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