deacon's corner

Last week I spoke of our vision of Jesus and who he was as a man. I believe we often lose sight of who Jesus Christ really is and what he asks each of us to do. Father John Hugo, a friend and counselor to Dorothy Day, saw how many held a “falsified picture of Jesus with his eyes perpetually raised to heaven, soft, even girlish in beauty, the very incarnation of impotence.” The real Jesus, in Father Hugo’s words, “did not hesitate to condemn the rich, to warn the powerful, to denounce in vehement language the very leaders of the people. His love and goodness were chiefly for the poor, the simple, the needy. And his love for them was not a limp, indulgent love, like that of a silly, frivolous mother. To his friends he preached poverty of spirit, detachment, the carrying the cross. No more did the kindness of Jesus spare his followers, than the kindness of God the Father spared his son. We are to drink of the same chalice that he drank of.”

Each of us has an image of Jesus. Perhaps you see a bearded man with long brown hair, kind eyes and a gentle smile, wearing a white robe and brown sandals; perhaps of a crucified man, with only a loin cloth, tormented and tortured, wounded by the nails and spear. Some may see him as tall or short, dark- or light- skinned, heavy or thin. And each image would be correct, for like each of us, Jesus, while fully divine, was a human being created in the image and likeness of God. He shared fully in our humanity; human birth, life, and death.

“Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean a thing. But what is the one thing? That’s what you have to find out.” A dialog from the movie City Slickers between Curly (Jack Palance) and Mitch (Billy Crystal)

Shalom! Pax! Eirene! Salaam! Sliem! Shlomo! Paz! La Paiz! Fridden! Der Frieden! Achukma! Heiwa! La Pace! Amaithi!, Amini! Amniat! Ashtee! Asomdwee! Hoa Binh! Maluhia! Melino!

Shalom Aleichem!

Jesus often greeted his disciples this way. Shalom means ‘Peace‘ and Aleichem means ‘be with you‘ so today I say to you “Shalom Aleichem.” What a wonderful way to welcome someone or to bid someone farewell; certainly far better than our simple “Hello” or “Goodbye.” Even “Shalom” conveys so much more; when we say “Shalom” we wish the receiver peace and happiness, we are offering our desire for their continued well-being, a gift freely given. Imagine how the disciples would have reacted if when Jesus appeared to them he had said “Howdy y’all!” or simply “Hello.”

When you hear the word ‘church’ what is your immediate thought? Let’s be honest. If you hear ‘St. Thomas Aquinas’ you think of the cathedral. If you hear ‘St. Albert the Great’ you think and see in your mind the building where you attend Mass each weekend.  But are those buildings church? They are places of worship for certain, but they are not church. We are.

A few months ago, just prior to major surgery, I was blessed to receive the seventh sacrament, the anointing of the sick. With friends surrounding me, I was anointed and forgiven my sins…forgiven my sins. While I had, the day before received the sacrament of penance I felt so uplifted, so relieved to know that God is such a forgiving God. I felt so light; it was as if I could float. In that moment I felt completely at peace and loved, so loved. What a tremendous gift of grace we receive with this sacrament.

Do you pray? How often do you pray? How do you pray?

I suspect that many of us can remember being taught by our parents and teachers to recite the standard prayers such as the Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, The Act of Contrition, etc. and to say them on our knees just before we went to bed each night. We also were taught to ask God to help us with all the important issues that confronted us in our daily lives. We looked to God as the purveyor of goodness, the giver of all that we believe we need: “God, I really need to pass the exam tomorrow.” “God, help me find a job.” “God, I really need to win the lottery.”

“Do you want to be well?” (John 5:6) Jesus asked this question of a man who had been ill for 38 years. When the man responded yes, Jesus simply said “Rise, take up your mat, and walk.” What is striking about this passage is the notable difference with other healings that Jesus performed. In the normal course of events, someone who was in need of healing approached Jesus with the belief that he could heal them and Jesus in turn responded because of their faith in him. In this case, Jesus approaches the man uninvited and asks if he wants to be healed.

We have this notion of temples or churches as places where God resides. We forget that God is everywhere; churches are buildings where we go to feel closer to God, to worship and to pray together to our Creator.