Some Thoughts about the End of the Film "SILENCE"

WARNING – this commentary definitely contains spoilers

I really loved the movie Silence.  I am generally a fan of Martin Scorsese’s work and this film did not disappoint.  I think that young Andrew Garfield is just beginning to blossom as an actor and I look forward to seeing his future work.  I found the movie a fascinating glimpse into the history of 17^th Century Japan and one perspective on the near complete failure of Christian missionary efforts to flourish in Japan.

But I found myself troubled by the ending. I have seen other comments of the internet expressing similar misgivings and explanations trying to explain why I should not be troubled.

My discomfort with the ending does not come because Rodrigues apostatizes. Scorsese is faithful to the book and I question my own ability to remain faithful in such horrible circumstances.  What I don’t like is that the Apostasy is presented as Jesus’ own idea (Christ breaks his silence and tells Rodrigues to apostatize for the good of the others) and as a virtuous act.  I suppose that if the story ended there, I would have been fine.  We would have been left to wonder how Rodrigues lived out his days.

But he is shown in his life after Apostasy and even to the end of his days where he is shown buried with a Crucifix that he has managed to hide during his remaining days.  Good, he really did harbor his faith all the days of his life and prevent others from suffering by crossing his fingers behind his back as he continued to reject his faith in writing until he died. But we are let in on the secret.  His wife made sure he was buried with a sign of what was in his heart.

Here are some of the problems I see with the story as it is laid out.

1.       1. Apostasy is a grave sin and a mortal offense against God.  Jesus would not council us to commit a grave sin even to achieve a good end.  The end of relieving someone else’s suffering would not justify the sinful means.  When warning his disciples about persecutions that would come because they had embraced the faith, Jesus admonishes his disciple to courage and then says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.  But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.” (Matthew 10:32-33)  This text applies directly to the situation at hand precisely because Jesus is warning his brothers about the martyrdom they will face on his account.

2.      2. My second concern is with the fact that the one who apostatized to save others is later shown contributing to the catching of other Christians.  He helps the Japanese authorities find other Christians and identifies Christian symbols that may lead to the further persecution of more Christians.  This would seem to negate any “good ends” that might come from his the evil act he used to achieve that end.

3.      

3    3. I was praying today and this third objection came to me: St. Paul told the Romans: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Rom. 10:9)  This seems to preclude “secret Christianity.” The point of the Christian faith is not only that I would be drawn close to God, it is that I will witness to the faith by my life and my words that others can come to know the Grace of God too.  I think the Apostasy of Fr. Rodrigues is doubly sinful because he is a missionary who went to Japan to bring the Gospel.  His denial of Christ is the cause of grave scandal.  And again to reinforce that I read further in Romans 10.  Paul says: ““everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring [the] good news!” (Romans 10:13-15) Rodrigues is there so that others can hear the Gospel. His apostasy cannot be recast as virtue.  He cannot simply be satisfied to reserve his faith in his silent heart – he is called to profess it with his lips.  Faith that says one thing in the heart while professing the exact opposite with the lips is no faith at all.

4.      

      None of this is to say that Rodrigues cannot be saved in the end.  Throughout the story, he himself testifies to the power of God’s grace to forgive even the sin of apostasy as he continuously offers absolution to the cowardly Kichijiro each time he apostatizes.

I really do recommend this film, it is a beautiful work of cinematic art.  But I want Catholics and other Christians who see it to do so with a healthy dose of skepticism. Because even though it is written by a Japanese Catholic, and turned into a film by an Italo-American Catholic assisted by an American Jesuit, it does not present Catholic Teaching.  

Is it Charity or is it Justice? Sunday Homily May 22, 2011

Interesting that we have this Gospel reading about Jesus’ going away and returning on Sunday, May 22, 2011, the day after one Christian group claimed that Jesus was going to return to gather the Church to himself. (Interestingl,we had the same text at Friday’s Liturgy.) Religious confusion about the end times abound in our society because certain “Christians” who claim to be experts in the Bible publish outlandish claims. Like the claims made this weekend, these are often contrary to what the Catholic holds and teaches. It is important that we, as Catholics know our faith so that we are able to counter the supposedly Christian claims when they arise.

But I don’t want to talk about the Gospel today. Instead I want to focus on the first reading, the story of the neglected widows and the Church’s dealing with a problem in its ranks in the first Century. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on another common misunderstanding in a key component of the Church’s teaching about how we are to live the Christian life.

In order to understand the confleict, we must first understand the context provided by two earlier texts in the Acts of the Apostles. We read in Chapter 2:

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need.”

And again in Chapter 4:

“With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.”

St. Luke paints a very idyllic image of the Church Community - an image of beautiful balance so that the needs of all were met and everyone is committed to the care of others. But we find just a few verses later that there were some interruptions to the balance first we read about Annanias and Sapphira who hold back some of their property while representing that they have given all. And then, here in Chapter 6, we find a cultural linguistic difference. Widows of some in the community are not being cared for. These imbalances threatened to derail the Church’s preaching mission. Jesus himself had taught an idealized image of the Kingdom of God that demanded careful balance to promote the dignity of every person. If that balance did not exist within the Church, how could the church effectively preach the Kingdom to those outside the Church.

Throughout Jewish history, one of the primary symbolic markers of the rectitude of society, has been how that society cared for those who were least able to care for themselves: this would be symbolized by the term “widows and orphans,” but the prophets of old would openly preach that God’s judgment was leveled against Israel when Israel neglected the needs of the poor – those who hunger and thirst, the captive – especially those who had been captured in war, the migrant and the foreigner in your midst, and the powerless: the widow and orphan. Jesus himself would equate worthiness for the Kingdom with caring for the needs of those least able to care for themselves. “Come the blessed of my father and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world… What you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for me…”

This is the driving principle behind this “fix” that we see in today’s first reading. There is an imbalance that is affecting the ability of the Church to effectively preach the Gospel.

This story is often seen as the establishment of the office of “deacon” in the first century church. Deacons were servants who were given the responsibility of helping to maintain the balance in the community that was necessary to give witness to the values of the Kingdom. They were to take care of the needs of widows and orphans. Coming forward into the modern era, it might be said that deacons are responsible for the CHARITY work of the Church. Distributing food and clothing to the poor, taking care of the needs of the underprivileged, looking out for the rights of the powerless. These are the works of Charity. Right?

This is where the common misunderstanding comes in. While this is a common way of speaking about such works, the teaching of the Church would say that these are NOT works of charity, but rather, works of JUSTICE. This is a very important distinction that cuts to the heart of Christian teaching and Christian living. The distinction is so remarkably clear in Catholic teaching, but has been obscured by non-Catholic thinking on the subject and a careless confusion of the two words in modern parlance. I want to carefully draw the distinction for you again and invite you to deeper refection on the importance of this distinction.

CHARITY is a translation of the Latin word CARITAS, which is, in turn, a translation of the Greek word AGAPE. I have preached extensively on AGAPE in the past and you may remember that I said that “love” is not an adequate translation of the word. AGAPE is to love with the LOVE of God – it is the highest love and, I would argue, the only thing that is really LOVE in Christian teaching. All other “loves” must aspire to become the self-sacrificing love we call AGAPE.

JUSTICE, on the other hand, is the English translation of the Latin word IUSTITIA, which is, in turn, a translation of the Greek word DIKAIOSUNES. This word appears 100 times in the NT, but is most often translated with the English word RIGHTEOUSNESS. Do not let that confuse the distinction I am drawing, the Scriptures are talking about Justice.

Charity and Justice are both religiously important words and principles. In the Catholic understanding of living the Christian life, we would call both VIRTUES. They are similar virtues in that both are virtues that perfect the human person by perfecting their relationships with other people. I am made a better person when I am able to love another, I am made a better person when I act justly towards another person. They are similar in that they do not simply perfect the person in whom they inhere, but they perfect society by helping to maintain balance in our relationships.

But they are different kinds of virtues. CHARITY is one of the 3 THEOLOGICAL or supernatural virtues. (Faith, hope and Charity or Love). As such we gain Charity when we enter into relationship with the Holy Spirit and are expected to perfect charity in our living of the Christian life. As I grow in Charity, this theological virtue helps me to desire God above all other desires and to see that my love for other people is not only consistent with my loving God, it is EQUAL to my loving God. “If I say that I love God who I cannot see,” St. John says, “but do not love my brother, who I can see, I am a liar and love is not in me at all.” (1 John 4)

Justice, on the other hand is not a THEOLOGICAL or SUPERNATURAL virtue, it is a MORAL virtue. In fact, it is one of the CARDINAL or hinge virtues on which all the other virtues turn. Justice is the virtue that helps me to examine my relationship with other people and to understand how I am to behave toward them. Justice strengthens me to give to others what they are owed as a matter of rights. When I grow in the virtue of Justice, I am keenly aware of rights (mine and others’) and the obligations produced by those rights.

While Charity internally perfects the agent in which it inheres, Justice externally, carefully balances the relationship between one human being and another, between one human being and the community in which he lives. In Charity I am kindly disposed toward another; I am internally desirous of that person’s good (even beyond rights). In Justice, I am compelled to act on behalfs of that person’s good in concert with their rights.

While Justice must always be driven by Charity in the Christian person, because Justice is about what is owed somebody as a matter of right, It is seen as more foundational than charity in Christian ACTION. Justice is more foundational because it is about giving to others that to which they have a right. Love or Charity, on the other hand, is about giving someone that to which they are not entitled; St. Paul: Christ proves his love for us in that while we are YET SINNERs (i.e. we have no right to redemption), Christ STILL dies for us…” Charity is, in a sense, more laudible in that I am giving someone beyond what they deserve. I am going the extra mile In Justice, I am only seeking to restore or maintain a balance (scales are the right symbol of justice) with regards to basic rights.

So If I give food to the poor, which I am exhorted to in the Gospel, I am not acting in charity - We can all agree that EVERYONE has a basic right to food (corollary: no one individual or society has a right to hoard food)– rather I am acting out of justice.

UNTIL all people have food, until all people have shelter, until all people have peace and security, until all people have the chance to progress in dignity and happiness, Until there is real balance with regards to these rights, I cannot say that I am doing works of charity, I must say that I am MERELY doing works of JUSTICE, seeking to restore balance in the world. A balance that is a sign of the Kingdom.

Of course there can be disagreements – even among people of good will about what constitutes a right – this demands deep refelction, and staying close to the heart of the Church to Guide us in deeper understanding of these realities.

The Church has a beautiful body of binding doctrinal teaching with regards to the demands of justice. During the last 150 years (Since Pope Leo XIII), the Church has taken its place as a major prophetic voice arguing for the dignity and rights of all people. This body of work is quite accessible – especially in today’s information age- and constitutes the most important theological work of the 20^th Century.

No homily about the virtue of Justice would be complete without reflection on these principle of SOCIAL JUSTICE. This is important in today’s American discourse because of a WILLFUL attempt on the part of some in our society to equate SOCIAL JUSTICE with one of the scary bogeymen of political discourse: socialism. Glenn Beck recently told his army of listeners that if your church website has the words “social justice” on it you should run to another church – Social Justice is just code for socialism. [Glenn Beck is so entirely misinformed on this point]

So let me reflect on this for a moment: What we call “Social Justice” takes the principles of Justice and applies them to the community. We are encouraged to examine systems of government, economic systems, business systems and make sure that they are not systemically keeping people from procuring that to which they have a right - to make sure that systems are not standing in the way of human dignity. We are encouraged to work diligently to reform and any systems that do impede human progress and work against human dignity. The greater the threat to human dignity, the more extreme the response demanded. Again, there is a remarkable body of literature that is easily available to learn more aout Justice and social justice. As American Catholics, it is important that we take time to educate ourselves.

I do not have time to go in to any depth about these, but I would like to simply read the list of principles on which Catholic Social Teaching is built and encourage you to read more:

1. Life and Dignity of ALL human persons

2. The Common Good

3. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable

4. Rights and Responsibilities

5. Role of Government and Subsidiarity

6. Economic Justice for All

7. Stewardship of Creation

8. Promotion of Peace and disarmament

9. Participation

10. Global Solidarity and the Progress of peoples

I’d also like to share an example of a great social justice document from outside the Church. Perhaps you will recognize these words:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

The American Declaration of Independence is one of the greatest Social Justice Documents in human history. From that beautiful preamble, Jefferson will go on to catalogue the various “injuries and usurpations” i.e. injustices, by which the King of Great Britain had intentionally disturbed the balance necessary for human dignity, human freedom, human progress, human flourishing in American colonies. This critique of systemic injustice is at the heart of American independence and of what Catholics call SOCIAL JUSTICE.

The Constitution of 1789 will be another great social justice moment. Its preamble will famously say that it has been ordained for to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty…” Our Constitution is envisioned less as a governing document and more as guarantor of human dignity. “Justice” is not a slogan or catch phrase, it is a driving principle of our livesw as both Americans and as Catholics. It must be understood in all its nuances.

The Civil war, the emancipation proclamation and the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution will continue the work of the American Revolution, by extending the blessings of liberty and justice to even more people.

The Civil Rights Movement of my childhood was the next great moment of SOCIAL justice in American life. It is as though the reformers of the 1960s were saying “great job in 1776, and 1789, and 1865, but the work is not finished yet. We STILL have systems in place that are trampling on the dignity of human beings…” Those who worked for Civil rights understood and were driven by the SOCIAL JUSTICE principle that “as long as one human being is denied dignity, we are all denied dignity.” I am so proud as I look at photographic imagery from the Civil rights era, that whenever MLK marched, there were Catholic priests and habited nuns marching with him. The Church embraced the principles of the Civil Rights Movement because it was being driven by a very CATHOLIC understanding of JUSTICE and DIGNITY.

Justice is not dependent on a particular Governing or economic system. There may be justice or injustice in a Democracy or a republic or a monarchy. Even a dictatorship may involve just and unjust elements. There may be just and unjust elements within socialism or communism. The same may be true of capitalism. The Church has been critical of Marxism because it trampled on human dignity by treating human beings as cogs in a production machine at the service of state productivity. The Church has also been critical of unbridled, unregulated free-market capitalism because it can trample on human dignity by treating human beings as cogs in the machinery of private profit. The Church is not advocating for one system or another – RATHER- the Church is, within each system, advocating for the highest principle of justice – THE DIGNITY OF ALL HUMAN PERSONS.

The leaders of the early Church presented in the today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, demonstrate this understanding of justice all the way back in the 1^st Century. They are busy about the important mission of preaching the WORD. But they understood that the work and life of the Church was being hurt by this imbalance: the needs of all were not being met. Rights were not being attended too. Societal obligations were not being met. In their wisdom and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they knew that the mission of the Church could not succeed with this imbalance, and they acted swiftly to restore balance. TO RESTORE JUSTICE.

For nearly 150 years , the Church’s teachings have been carefully crafted to advocate for justice in the modern industrial and post-industrial world. The Church is a champion of human dignity and especially of the poor, the voiceless, and powerless. It is an obligation of our Christian faith and in direct continuity with our religious history going all the way back to the prophets of ancient Israel and the Church’s mission of spreading the Kingdom of God.

The constant call to every Christian is to check our political and economic lives to make sure that we are striving to live these principles of justice in our everyday lives, that we are seeking to uphold the dignity of all human beings, that we are seeking to maintain the balance of justice that IS the Kingdom of God. Amen?

ST. ANNE'S NOVENA, St. Dominic's Church, San Francisco, Day 5, July 22, 2010

THE FEAST OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE

We continue our reflection on what it means to become the family of Jesus. The Church call us today to celebrate one of the original members of our family. Today is the feast of St. Mary Magdalene.

We actually know very little about St. Mary Magdalene from the scriptural witness. There is a great deal of legendary and traditional material about her but the Scriptures say almost nothing about her. This is complicated by the historical conflation of St. Mary Magdalene with other women in the Bible. Sometimes she is conflated with women who have no names, such as the woman caught in adultery, or the sinful woman who interrupted Jesus is dinner and going to see. This is further complicated by the sixth century defamation of her character that has been perpetuated in virtually every form of popular culture, Art, literature and cinema since the sixth century. St. Mary Magdalene is first called a prostitute five centuries after she lived. There is no evidence of this tradition before the 6^th century and since 1969 the church has officially shied away from such references to this important woman. But I would give anything to see a movie or book about the life of Jesus that presented Mary Magdalene as anything other than a prostitute.

So DO we know? What does the Bible say about St. Mary Magdalene? She appears in all four Gospels but in three of those Gospels her name is never mentioned until the passion narrative. In the passion narrative she is the only person who was present for all three the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus.

In Luke's Gospel alone is she mentioned outside the Passion narrative, and then only in a passing reference. But we learn quite a bit about her from this passing reference. In chapter 8 of Luke's Gospel we are told that as Jesus went about his preaching ministry, proclaiming the kingdom of God, he was accompanied by his disciples and by a group of women. Among those women, three are named: Susannah, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene - to which Luke add that seven demons had been cast out of Mary Magdalene. Luke also says that these women supported Jesus' ministry out of their resources (for this reason, we should remember her, perhaps, as the patron saint of benefactors of preaching ministries.

Because of Mary Magdalene's faithfulness to the end of Jesus' ministry - again, while most of Jesus' male disciples were hiding for fear, Mary Magdalene accompanied him all the way to the cross and was present at his death. For this faithfulness, she was rewarded by Jesus as the first person to see him after the resurrection. In all four Gospels, the resurrected Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene before he appears to any of the other disciple. More importantly, it is Mary Magdalene that is entrusted with the message [“good news,” “gospel”] of the resurrection and given the responsibility to take that message to the other disciples. Because she is the first one in trusted with the preaching of the resurrection, she has been called the apostle to the apostles and is one of the primary patrons of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans.

So what does the life of Mary Magdalene have to teach us about what it means to be the family of Jesus? First, from Mary Magdalene we learn that every encounter with Jesus Christ is supposed to transform our live. The implication of Mary Magdalene having had seven demons cast out is that the encounter with Jesus changed her life. How have we allowed our encounter with Jesus in the Scriptures, in the Eucharist, in our Christian brothers and sisters to transform our lives?

Second like Mary Magdalene we are called to allow the deep love for Jesus that we have because we have been transformed by him to compel us to faithfulness

And finally like Mary Magdalene, once we believe that we have seen the resurrected Christ we are called to tell others what we believe. We are entrusted with the message and cannot keep it to ourselves. The message of the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ must burn from within us and others must be told that we believe.

On this Feast Day, let us pray for the grace to have our live transformed by every encounter with Jesus, let us pray to have a love that leads us to great faithfulness, and let us ask God to give us the heart of an apostle, willing to preach the good news to those to whom we are sent. Amen?

ST. ANNE NOVENA, St. Dominic's San Francisco, CA - Day 4, July 21, 2010

We continue our reflection on what it means to become the family of Jesus. Today our Scriptures offer us a reflection on the place of the word of God in the life of the Family of Jesus.

St. Dominic, the patron of this church was said to have spoken in his lifetime only to or about God. it's a beautiful reflection on his life as a man of the Word. We are called to imitate this, but we cannot speak about God, if we do not know God. The rich source of growing in our knowledge and love of God is the Word of God, the Bible.

In recent Catholic history there has been an uneasy balance between the relative places of Word and Sacrament in Catholic life. One of the criticisms of the reformers at the time of the Reformation was that Catholics were so focused on sacrament, on ritual, on doing and that we didn't place enough emphasis on knowing God through his Word. That has been a caricature of Catholic life for the last 500 years. Catholics are focused on Sacraments and ritual; Protestants are the ones who are focused on the Word.

The second Vatican Council sought to restore a proper balance in Catholic life between liturgy and the word. We see this reflected in the liturgy itself with up with and emphasis after the Council in a balance between the Liturgy of the Word, where we are nourished by the word of God, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where we are nourished by the body and blood of Christ. We are reminded that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. A spiritual life focused entirely on the Eucharist and the other sacraments is a rich spiritual life, but, absent the Word of God, we are not getting a recommended daily allowance of spiritual nourishment. If we do not know the Scriptures we will not grow we will not mature in faith.

We need to be like the rich soil in the parable in today's Gospel - rich soil that receives the Word of God allows it to take root in our lives and our hearts and bears fruit in the world. So I'd like to offer these reflections about the word of God and it's place in the family of Jesus.

First, as I said before, the Word of God is a source of spiritual nourishment. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” St. Jerome, who first translated the Scriptures into a language that could be read by the masses, said “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” As Catholics we understand that God put himself in the Scriptures we experience the presence of God when we read the Scriptures. Saint Paul told Timothy “…All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.^”2 Tim 3:16-17 (NAB)

The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the Word as food for maturity: “…you have become sluggish in hearing. Although you should be teachers by this time, you need to have someone teach you again the basic elements of the utterances of God. You need milk, (and) not solid food. Everyone who lives on milk lacks experience of the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties are trained by practice to discern good and evil.” Heb 5:11-14 (NAB)

Second, as Catholics we understand the Bible, the Scriptures as our common story; it is the story of the church - it tells where we have come from, it gives us direction for where we are going. We must read it with the church, so that we come to a deeper understanding of ourselves as the family of Jesus.

Third we must read and know the Scriptures because in our world the Bible is constantly misused, misquoted and misunderstood.

Sometimes this is innocent - people just simply don't know the Bible and they'll say something like the Bible says "the Lord helps those who help themselves." No it doesn't; but that sounds vaguely biblical, so people think it's in the Bible. Or people say the Bible says "money is the root of all evil." No, the Bible says "the love of money is the root of all evil." That's very different. These are relatively innocent misquotings of Scripture.

But other times the misquoting of Scripture is used in nefarious ways to manipulate people and to make people believe false doctrines. If we do not know the Scriptures we cannot defend ourselves against such misquoting.

And finally knowledge of the Scriptures strengthened us against the enemies and evil in the world. The letters to the Hebrews tells us that the “…the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. Heb 4:12 (NAB)

And St. Paul tells the Christians at Ephesus that the Bible is a weapon to be used in spiritual warfare, warfare against real evil in the world...

Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all (the) flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Eph 6:10-17 (NAB)

Like the prophet Jeremiah in today’s first reading, we need to answer the call of the Lord to spread his word in the world. We need to allow him to write it on our times and in our hearts. He has called us from our mother's womb to speak his word to those who need to hear it. But we will not be able to speak his word to others if we have not become rooted in that word ourselves.

So brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you to go home and find your Bible; blow the dust off the cover, and open it up and began reading it. And become that good soil wherein the word of God can take root and began to bear fruit in your life and the life of the world. Amen?

ST. ANNE NOVENA, St. Dominic's San Francisco, CA - Day 3, July 20, 2010

We continue our reflection on what it means to become the family of Jesus. You might imagine that it was from today’s Gospel – Jesus’ commentary on who his family is – that the theme of my preaching for the Novena emerged.

I was born into the Hutcherson Family 48 years ago. And of course I am still part of the family and love that family. But I have made choices in my adult life that have shaped who I regard as my family. First I became Catholic – as the only Catholic in my family, I feel much more in common with other Catholics than I do with my own blood family. I moved to the West Coast to work for the Church and then entered the Dominican Order where I even identify other members by familial titles – brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers… Because of these choices, I have not been with my blood family for Christmas for more than 25 years. Sometimes people lament that for me, but I would find it very odd to spend Christmas with my blood relatives who do not share my Catholic faith and the uniquely Catholic perspective on what Christmas means. I spend Christmas with the family I have chosen.

Most of you were baptized into the Catholicism as infants and may even have a sense of having been “born Catholic”. Be that as it may, each of us must, at some conscious life, must make a choice to live our faith. We are continually confronted with the opportunity for conversion – the opportunity to choose to live as members of the Family of Jesus.

It is to this reality that Jesus points in today’s Gospel when he is told that his mother and brothers are asking for him. He gestures to his disciples and says “these are my mother, and brothers, and sisters – these who choose to do the will of my Father…” Jesus invites us to choose to be members of his family.

If we are to choose by living the will of Jesus’ Father, it is important that we become more deeply acquainted with his Father. Our Old Testament reading today is a great place to start to learn more about one of the defining characteristics of the Father that makes it possible for us become his family.

The idea that “God is Love” is an entirely New Testament concept. If we are to find and understand the Love of God in ancient Hebrew understanding, we locate it in other words – In the OT, God is not called “loving” – he is called “merciful.” In God’s mercy, we find his patience, his forgiveness, his sympathy, his kindness, his pity. It is this undeserved expression of compassion by which the father draws his undeserving creation into a familial relationship. Like the Father of the Prodigal son, our divine Father waits patiently for us to turn to him, but once we have turned to him, he does not wait for us to crawl to him, he runs to us and, as the Gospel says, “throws himself on our neck.’ - The most aggressive of all embraces – God aggressively draws us to himself in compassion and mercy.

As Catholics, we have beautiful access to this mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation. As a confessor, I love to hear confessions because in that moment I have no other job but to be the sign of God’s love and mercy. I get to remind penitents that they are, by God’s grace and mercy, members of the Family of the Lord.

But we are also reminded that as part of the family of the Lord, we are called to grow in the image and likeness of the Father. So as we experience the mercy of God that draws us more deeply into his family, we are also called to grow in mercy – called to become more merciful people. It is one of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the Merciful, mercy will be shown them…” As members of the family of he Lord, we are called to be merciful to each other – to be patient with each other’s weaknesses, to forgive those who wrong us.

We are called to be humble and honest in our judgments of other, to recognize, even as we so clearly see each other’s faults in the Church, that we are every bit as much in need of God’s mercy as everyone around us. I have often said that one of the best expressions of Church that I know is AA and other 12-step programs. When one goes to AA, one knows that every other person is just another drunk who recognizes their need for help. The Church should be the same way, but all too often we want people to believe that we go to church because we are so good. We are better off when we can look around the room in frank admission that each of us is a sinner in deep need of God’s mercy. That mercy becomes more real and draws us more deeply in the Lord’s family and helps us to grow in being more merciful as well.

ST. ANNE NOVENA, St. Dominic's San Francisco, CA - Day 2, July 19, 2010

We continue our reflection on what it means to grow deeper as the family of Jesus.

This has been a summer of reunions for me. I attended three reunions, all in June: my 30 year high school class reunion. A family reunion. And the Assembly of all the friars of the Western Dominican Province. These three reunions have two things in common – we gather to share stories and to share food.

The stories are important because they are our common heritage. At the family reunion – we remebre when cousin so and so did such and such. We laugh at the foible of uncle so and so. Or can you belive that HE married HER…

At our class reunion we laugh at our ridiculous behavior as teenagers, we fondly rekindle relationships, and we mourn the loss of those no longer with us. Our stories are what make us the class of 1980.

At the Dominican assembly, we gathered in class groups or with those with whom we went through formation and remember our time at St. Albert’s. Remember when Fr. So and so did such and such. Laughter abounds as we remember. Tears as we recall.

The stories bind us together and give us a common history.

The other element common to such reunions and gatherings is food. At my family reunion everybody puts their best foot forward. Fried chicken, BBQ, green beans, good southern fare. Family recipes come out and everybody tries to imitate our late grandmother’s great cooking.

At my class reunion good Gulf Coast seafood. We consumed so much out of fear that we will not be getting any more any time soon.

At reunions, the stories are told over good food and good drink. We celebrate with eating, and the eating has memories all its own.

The same thing happens every time we gather for Mass. We gather in the liturgy of the Word to share our stories – In today’s Gospel, Jesus invokes two of our family stories. The mere mention of Jonah and the Queen of Sheba are enough to recall vivid stories from our heritage. You know the stories about Jonah – your memory can fill in the details of the story of Jonah – the reluctant prophet, the fleeing to the sea, being thrown overboard, three days in the belly of the fish, the successful preaching in Ninevah.

Same with the Queen of Sheba – she’s less known, but, again, her name invokes a story from our heritage – her connection to the wisdom of Solomon.

Jesus invokes these two stories to remind us that people outside our heritage – non-Jews – who heard the word of God, who heard our stories, responded in faithfulness. He tells us that we have a much greater purveyor of the family story in Jesus that either Nineveh or the Queen of Sheba did Jonah and Solomon – we have a greater than Solomon, a greater than Jonah in Jesus himself. Because of that, because we have a more complete telling of the story, we will be held to a higher standard of faithfulness than even Nineveh and the Queen of the South.

And just like at a family reunion, we gather not just to share our story, we gather to share our family food. Jesus, the great sign, the great story, gives himself to us as food, we experience the food as an important part of the story – We have the greatest sign of all signs in the meal we share at this altar.

When we gather at family reunions, as great as the stories are to help us with our family identity, there is something even more basic to us than the story that draws us together as family – here I am talking about DNA – the very bloods and genes flowing through our veins. When I gathered with my family this summer, I went out for an evening with two cousins – there was no mistaking us as family; one might have even assumed we were brothers and sisters – the read hair, the ginger complexion, the loud mouths. That’s DNA.

Well there is a DNA in Jesus’ family as well – that which draws us together as family of Jesus. We read about it in the Prophet Micah today: “You have been told what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah offers the most basic expression of what it means to be part of the Family of the Lord. He is critical of religious practice that is not backed up by internal conversion. Such external expressions are not pleasing to God – sacrifices, pilgrimages, festivals – unless they are accompanied by an internal commitment to justice. To love goodness, to choose right and to walk humbly with God. This is our DNA, the genetic marker that indicates that we are the family of Jesus.

ST. ANNE NOVENA, St. Dominic's San Francisco, CA - Day 1, July 18, 2010

I was delighted when I was invited to preach the St. Anne Novena. First because it is always a joy to be at St. Dominic’s in San Francisco and second because I live in Tucson, AZ and will do almost anything to get out of there in July.

As I reflected on the relationship between St. Anne and Jesus (she is his grandmother) and the readings given by the Church for these 9 days, a theme began to emerge in my preparation: that of Family. And I have chosen “Becoming the family of Jesus” as the theme for these days. Over the course of the Novena I will be inviting us to reflect on some of the qualities and characteristics of Jesus’ family, and ways that we become more authentically and deeply part of that family. I was delighted that readings of the first day called us to a reflection on hospitality. I have grown to believe that hospitality is one of the primary virtues of the Christian life and one that we often neglect . So I’d like to invite us for a few minutes to reflect on hospitality as a virtue that we are called to live in imitation of Jesus and as members of his family.

We see in our fist reading today one of the origins of the Christian understanding of hospitality. Abraham sits outside his tent near the Terebinth of Mamre and offers hospitality to desert travelers. For the desert dwelling nomadic cultures of the ancient near east there is a remarkable custom of hospitality rooted in the precariousness of life in the desert. Every traveler in the desert lives balanced on the edge of danger and desert nomads help each other to survive in that dangerous setting.

I was blessed to experience the 20th Century version of this last summer traveling in Jordan. We had rented a car that gave us nothing but trouble from day one. After the first breakdown, I was looking for a tribe of Bedouins to trade the Toyota for a camel. Both times tha we broke down we were aided by Jordanians who could not do enough to help us. They saw us as their responsibility and our safety and care were their chief concern – putting their lives on hold to make sure that all of our needs were met.

Abraham offers hospitality to these travelers who turn our to be messengers of God in the midst of doing God’s work.

What was custom prior to Israel was codified as a principle of Justice in the Law of Moses – no longer rooted in the precariousness of life in the desert, but rather in the collective memory of Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. “Because you were shown hospitality in Egypt at a time of great need in your history,” God will say to Israel,” you too must show great care for the foreigner, the alien, the stranger in your land.” In fact, in Israel’s history, this will become one of the primary obligations of JUSTICE for God’s people and one of the measures of righteousness – how well do you care for widows, orphans, and strangers in the land.

What was custom in the Ancient Near East and law in Israel, makes its way into Christianity as a religious obligation as well. But for Christians, it is no longer simply custom or law, but it is part of the most basic obligation of the Christian life; to love as Jesus loves. In a list of the basic virtues of Christianity, Hebrews 13 begins “Let mutual love continue, do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.” (a direct reference to today’s first reading)

In the ancient world, the demand of hospitality highlighted and perpetuated the differences in peoples – I treat you well precisely BECAUSE you are other. Christians believe that the work of Jesus obliterates all those differences which keep us separated and divided from one another.

St. Paul says to the Ephesians:

“remember that at one time you, Gentiles in the flesh, were at that time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone"

So the obligation of hospitality becomes no longer about difference, it becomes a matter of loving one’s neighbor.

Every Christian is obliged to the virtue of hospitality because we await the return of the Lord. We know that every encounter is pregnant with the possibility of encountering the returning Lord. Abraham had so often encountered the Lord in his life and travels that he had no chosen but to expect to see the Lord again. The rule of St. Benedict says that every guest at the monastery is to be treated as though they are Christ himself…” That is not just true for Benedictines. It is true for all of us who wait expectantly for the Lord’s return.

We offer hospitality knowing that we will receive a blessing in return. Just as Abraham and Sarah were blessed for their hospitality with the fulfillment of God’s promise of a son.

Martha and Mary are blessed by their hospitality to Jesus. Both are lead to a deeper understanding of who they are and how they can best serve. Martha – busy about the details of hospitality – we all know Martha’s – you know, St. Martha Stewart, busy with all the details. Thank God for them. As a pastor, I certainly thank God for all the Marthas in my life – can you imagine a Church full of Marys – God would be loved and praised, but nothing would get done!

The next time we encounter Martha – at the end of John’s Gospel and the raising of lazarus, Martha has not changed at all – she is still the one taking care of the household. Her encounter with Jesus has lead her to a deeper commitment to who she is and how she can serve.

Mary, too, is lead to a deeper place. She, contrary to what might be expected of a womsn in her time, she has chosen the palce of a disciple – sitting at the feet of the master learning from him. Jesus affirms her in this. And the next time we encounter Mary, she is the disciple who anoints the feet of Jesus in preparation for his burial.

Like Martha and mary, the experience of hospitality is to lead us to deep er understanding of ourselves. As members of the Lord’s family, our hospitality has pe3rsonal implications – how we welcome and treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. It has communal implications – how we welcome newcomers and treat each other in the context of our parishes and other Christian association. It has civic and national implications – how we treat the stranger the alien who crosses our borders (I live in Arizona whre we have a great reputation in this regard – maybe not).

Hospitality is an obligation of our faith and a defining characteristic of members of the family of the Lord