The depths of hell?

We bring down so-called condemnation upon ourselves. WE separate ourselves from Love – I do it all the time when I isolate and fall close to despair. THAT is hell - deliberately cutting ourselves off from avenues of Love. Hell is the absence of Love. Not because we hate God, not because of so-called sinful actions for which we do not receive Sacramental confession with the proper formulae. But because we do not believe we deserve Love. It is our own inner feelings of guilt and shame – exaggerated and blown all out of proportion in our minds, pounded into us from so many arenas - that cuts us off from God, the Eternal Lover. THAT is the “free will” that’s always talked about. And it is formidable. We do not grow horns and maniacally laugh with a pitchfork when we are in this hell, we do not/cannot get “tricked” into hell by some imp named Screwtape. We push Love away ourselves when in this hell, because Love is so very beautiful and we can sometimes become convinced that we are so very ugly. We become convinced of this sometimes by the very religious institutions that should be trumpeting God’s love rather than God’s condemnation. We refuse strenuously yet somehow longingly – because what does Love want with someone like us??  We are beloved children of God, before ANYTHING – who could be worthier of joining with the very source of Love??

As a Christian priest and sometimes-sufferer of this Hell, I cannot believe nor will I ever teach that an All-Loving God puts us in this state as punishment nor that this state is eternal. We all deserve Love. Even the people we hate deserve Love. Because our first role is Beloved of God. Hell is our own banishment of Love.

THE SANCTIFYING LOVE OF GOD WILL WAIT FOR US, however long it takes.

Daily Mass Readings 

Acts 16:22-34

Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 7c-8

John 16:5-11

Disability, spiritual cottages & Home

 

We went to the Long Island Beltaine festival on Saturday and I celebrated Mass that evening – it was really a good day. The following day, I was hurting and I let the idea of being disabled and the Sunday Blues get to me. I wound up rising earlier than usual yesterday (thanks to a cranky dog), but I made use of the time. Took my time showering, dressing, and praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

But the big deal, the big hump was Saturday the day of the festival; on the weekends, I cling to the idea that I can ONLY do one thing a day, and my body kind of shuts down after that. My spine, muscles, not to mention my depression, demand it. The fact that we went to Beltaine AND I celebrated Mass is huge. They BOTH went well and that is what I need to build on.

Also, it’s time to stop with being ultra distracted by other intriguing faiths. I love Buddhism and the various Pagan faiths like Wicca and Druidry; I have cultivated these beautiful and welcoming spiritual cottages everywhere.

But my forever Home is the Christian Church. 

Not the one that calls me an enemy of God. No more. I'm referring to the fellowship in that Jesus – my brother, my friend, my God – loves me, is patient with me, and will always be there for me.  Where we lift each other up instead of cut people down in guilt and shame.

THAT is the Christian Church. THAT is my Church.

Daily Mass Readings

Acts 14:19-28

Psalm 145:10-11, 12-13ab, 21

John 14:27-31a

🙏🙏🙏

Nothing much to say but this... the day is beautiful and it is such a privilege to be of service as the priest of a loving God.

Daily Mass Readings 

Acts 14:5-18

Psalm 115:1-4,15-16

John 14:21-26

Objective vs. subjective?

Which is “good” from an ethical perspective?

 Objectively always-knowable truth; certainty in always being right and having a perfectly right source from which to derive wisdom? Subjective truth that can morph & change from situation to situation and person to person?

Right is right even if no one is right; wrong is wrong even if everyone is wrong?

What’s right for me may not be right for you; live and let live?

It is comforting and even seductive to espouse what we tout as objective truth. Why? Because we can simply take action and speak it without wrestling with it because… well, because we know it’s right.  I have wanted (and often still want) to be able to espouse objective truth and wrestling the angels be damned. It is so EASY to be sure of something, like being secure in the knowledge that the earth revolves around the sun, 2+2=4, I have 10 fingers and 10 toes. I’d never fret over the truth of those statements because there is no denying them. They are facts.

What about moral truth?

Killing is wrong; what about abortion or killing in self-defense? Sex outside of heterosexual marriage is wrong; what about committed LGBTQ+ marriages and polyamorous families? Transgenderism is a mental disorder, what about the scientists, doctors, psychiatrists, and other-than Judeo Christian cultures that acknowledge more than 2 genders as being legitimate and beautiful?

It’s be nice to just say, “I know what’s right and I can tell from Church teaching & Scripture.” It’d be so easy to dismiss people who have abortions for whatever reason, sexual deviants, and freaks of nature. I could dismiss all this out of hand as wrong;

Except I was party to an abortion that I know was the right thing to do at the time.

Except I am in a loving polyamorous marriage and a committed partnership.

Except I have discovered very recently that I’m Queer.

Except several people I have accepted as family are happily transgender, have fulfilling lives and have made MY life fuller and more joyful.

See, it doesn’t matter what my personal feelings are about any of these or a million other ethical dilemmas. It might be easy to “pick a side” and denounce someone’s identity or the way they love from the rooftops. But that sure doesn’t look like the behavior of Jesus to me. Jesus loves and accepts people where they are, who they are. 

Not “in spite of” who they are but BECAUSE of who they are.

Angels are meant to be wrestled with. And everyone I meet needs to be welcomed as Jesus. Whether it’s easy or not.

End of song.

 

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Acts of the Apostles 3:11-26
Psalms 8:2ab and 5, 6-7, 8-9
Luke 24:35-48

Let Holy Week begin

 Another unannounced absence over. And that's OK today actually.

AT my wife's suggestion, I am beginning my writing once again. No matter who's reading or not. As I have committed myself to St. Francis Community once again, I am going to haver to get used to writing up sermons for my Masses. And honing skills beyond what I use at my 9-5 job since the ultimate goal is a different 9-5 job more akin to my skills and a pastor, as a spiritual companion, as a priest.

So join us, won't you?? As this banker of circumstance walks down this brambled path to find the path  believe God would prefer to have me on. God cares about my happiness and peace of mind too, just like everyone else. Why SHOULDN'T I strive for the life I have been called to but afraid to seek until now. I've said this before here, but... maybe, maybe, it is finally time. I am on the the clock here and I am not getting any younger.

In essence, do I choose Life... or what is essentially Death, to my spirit and my heart?

You shall be my people. And I shall be your God.

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent Lectionary: 256
Ezekiel 37:21-28
Jeremiah 31:10, 11-12abcd, 13
John 11:45-56

Strange Mercy: Sermon 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

English novelist and thinker Graham Green states in his novel Brighton Rock  - I admit I have not read this novel, but I heard the quote on my favorite TV show The West Wing.

"You can’t conceive, my child, nor can I or anyone the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God."

We Christians usually see the Hebrew Scriptures as a series of a bronze-age stories with peculiarities and moralities that don’t seem to befit our own day and age. The first reading starts out like that – the LORD rolling up his sleeves in preparation to deal out some well-deserved vengeance for the awful sins of Sodom and Gomorrah; the “cities of the plain” which have historically been used by biblical scholars (and not-scholars) as metaphors for homosexuality. While later Hebrew prophets and modern biblical scholars name the sins of Sodom & Gomorrah as adultery, pridefulness and uncharitablility, that’s actually not here nor there for this passage.

What matters is the mercy of God. And the power of our prayers.

 

As the Lord prepares His wrath. Abraham stands before Him and asks if the innocent deserve to be swept away with the guilty; would the LORD spare the city of 50 were innocent? The LORD agrees to spare the city for the sake of the 50 innocents; I imagine God looking at Abraham with a cocked eyebrow, waiting for more like a stage manager in a play. Abe asks for full mercy for the sake of the 45, then the 40, then 30, 20, 10. Each time The LORD assents the City will be spared over and over again even if there be but 10.

 

I like to think Abe kept going. 5 then 4 then 3-2-1. Because the mercy of God abounds. Because a righteous person dared to ask God to spare the innocent. Abe asked God. And God listened.  But the appalling strangeness of God’s mercy is baffling. What if Abraham had NOT begged got to save the innocent? Or elsewhere in Abraham’s story, what if the Angel hadn’t stopped him from sacrificing his son?

 

The strangeness of God’s mercy lives within all of us. How often are we enraged about being wrong – real or perceived? From being cut off in traffic, to a heated argument with a coworker or the betrayal of a loved one; I think we all have felt that brief flash from our shadow selves when these things happen. We may stew, let our rage grow and even wish harm on someone for one hot minute. To become wrath, to exact vengeance.  And then, the vast majority of us thank God, come around to the futility of such actions. We let the car pass, we settle back into a working relationship with our work colleagues, we move on and maybe even forgive our beloveds’ betrayal. All little works of the mercy of God working through our own hearts and lives.

 

We experience that strangeness when we pray as Jesus taught us to pray. For me, it’s in that one line… forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Now I’ve said the Our Father so often as a child on through adulthood, it’s so rote, that I can miss what I’m asking God here; If you’ll allow a paraphrase; please God forgive our sins IN THE FASHION THAT WE FORGIVE PEOPLE WHO WRONG US.  We ask God to have people treat us when we do wrong in the same fashion that we treat others. Not others who do wrong in general, but specifically those who wrong US. So God…treat us the way we treat the driver who cuts us off… the belligerent coworker, the beloved who betray us. This challenge is the beating heart of what it means to be Christian, to me. This requires us not to simply proclaim Christianity but to strive to live it with each action that we take towards ourselves, towards others and toward God. We will stumble and we will stumble often. A good portion of the time we may struggle against the idea of forgiving those who trespass against us; God knows I do. But think of reciting the prayer Jesus taught us in that context; if we first do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. But if we lead with love and forgiveness as a default, then maybe the appalling strangeness of the mercy of God won’t seem so strange anymore. 

Beloved "in the world"

Being Beloved of God in the world. How do I do it? Here are some ways:

- Remember that I am indeed “in the world”. I have fantasized for decades about being a cloistered monk in habit, living a life devoted to contemplative prayer in the walls of a secluded monastery. THIS IS NOT A POSSIBILITY. I am a married man twice over with grown children, a career, financial debt, and an active priestly ministry. Admiring contemplative religious folk is fine, it really is. But pining for a life to which I have not been called, to the detriment of the life I DO have is, to put it bluntly, a sin. Actively fantasizing about the way I do is escapism on the level of addiction.

-   BE PRESENT to my family. There is much to do in order to be an active participant in my household. To my wives, to my children, to my pets. There is laundry to do and things to clean, and rooms to switch, and animals to feed and walk. I have my greatest physical issues when I try to rush these things as thought there were a time limit and someone is keeping score. I am older now and I have to learn to pace myself. When I am slow methodical, and deliberate, I am far less handicapped than I perceive myself to be. I need to stop treating these activities as annoyances that keep me from comfort and see them as necessities to make my surroundings a sanctuary.

- BE PRESENT to prayer and meditation. When I open myself to this option, I feel the Spirit within me, and my day is far more productive. However, my prayer and meditation needs to be more than saying a rosary, doing the daily readings, the Liturgy of the Hours, or even celebrating Mass. Praying is more than recitation of memorized words, flung haphazardly “upward”. I need to enter into the prayer, BE the prayer. Thoughts and prayers are wonderful, sure. Thoughts prayers IN ACTION have the capacity to change the world. What good does presiding at Mass do anyone, unless I am also walking the walk of a beloved man ofGod? Am I being kind? Am I being fair-minded? Am I LIVING the Beatitudes or am I simply reciting them?  

- Treat my body as a temple. If I am beloved of God, I need to love my body. I don’t right now, not at all. I am not taking care of my physical nor psychological health. This needs to change.