No More Telling

They say, "tell him" or "tell her."  If telling were the solution they would have no need of me.  They tried telling before they got here.

Suspicious Homily

The homily beginning with reference to last night's TV news is only slightly less suspect than the one starting, "I was thinking on my way over from the altar..."

The Right Place

It seemed like the right place to be.  It wasn't, because you weren't there.

Violence's Limitations

Even if violence were necessary, it would never be something to be proud of.

Father's Expectations

It is true God is Father, but not one who wants us to remain children.  He expects us to grow up, too.

Having Control

We generally have more control than we think, though it may not be over what we would like or present in the way we may wish.

Fleeing into Divinity

We are all on occasion frightened by our humanity.  So why not the Church as well.  Too bad, of course, that instead of acknowledging and responding to the concern it so often flees into its divine aspect.

Looking for Gomez

To Americans, the name Jesus is reserved to the Lord.  This is not so in Spanish speaking countries where it is freely given to others as well, but true to my background I sometimes found it odd.  One day, I was looking for Gomez and when I knocked a voice from behind the door asked who I wanted to see.  I replied, "Is Jesus there?"

In more than one sense, the answer was obvious.  Of course he was, and if Gomez was not there the other certainly was.  He was in that house and every other.  He is behind every door and in every street.  Sometimes he is hard to find, but he is there.  When he is harder to find, it may mean we should look harder and be more willing to recognize him as he shows who he is.

Risks of Faith

The Gospel message is that choices must be made, and they must be made now.  But examples of the treasure in a field or pearl found at the market may not suffice.  They may be too obvious.  The finder of the treasure and buyer of the pearl knew what they had.  With the kingdom of God there is no such knowledge.  There is only faith.  The believer throws his net hoping to come up with something, but he is never really sure.  He does not know until he has brought it in, and even then he may not really know.

Unlocking Doors

People hide behind locked doors.  They are afraid of each other.  They think they have reason to be, and sometimes they do.  But someday, someone has to open up.  Someone has to come out and take a chance on the rest of us.

Lessons of Naaman

Not a few of us are like Naaman, wanting to do what is elaborate and even ridiculous, when all that is needed are the commonplace responses and honest recognition of what they mean.

Two Sisters' Choices

Jesus visited the two sisters.  One sat at his feet listening while the other worked.  Mary might have sat forever.  Without what Martha was doing all might have starved.  Neither was wrong, but neither was completely right.  Jesus seems to say that although Martha's activity was far from wrong and not unnecessary, it was at that moment less important.  Also that Mary's listening could be just for now.  Neither approach was complete and each only followed itself so that both were going in circles, rather than cycles - cycles that begin with the hearing of God's word, lead into attempts to discern its meaning, and turn it then into action before returning to the source.

Prophesy

Prophesy is not in seeing what is not there, but in understanding what is.

Observations at the Welfare Office

A visit to the Welfare Office:

The office is arranged so that filing cabinets form a corral or enclosure behind which the workers are hidden from the clients, and vice versa.

Staff walk around a lot but seem not to go anywhere, and they talk more to each other than to clients.

The people are simply there.  They are used to being here, resigned to the way it works (or doesn't).  They wander about, looking at each other and sometimes ask questions of clerks who look back as though no one had spoken.

No one admits to being bilingual.  They must be asked a second time.

Periodically, people become indignant, then return to the Daily News.

They seem conditioned to resignation interspersed with half-hearted complaint, expressed to the person next to them on the bench.

The time is oppressive and you will read almost anything to help make it pass.

Seats are arranged in the waiting area so that no one faces anyone else.

All look straight ahead at no one looking back.

There are quite literally mountains of papers and files.  More than an army might read in a millennium, assuming they even wanted to.

Workers engage in discussion about the latest procedure and the most recent change in it.  What may be attempts to facilitate the system seem instead to make it more complex.

Bathrooms are locked.

Every worker must ask his or her supervisor everything.

Supervisors seem most supercilious, and I suspect they carry their lunch in attache cases.

Some workers seem afraid they see the spectre of their past or of who they might have become in the sad and hopeless people outside the corral.  It makes them more angry than compassionate.

Up and down stairs.  Lines to get on lines.  Round and round the halls.  Not allowed on the elevator alone.  Steel chairs and too straight benches.  Staring at heads that stare at heads.

As soon as you leave they will call your name.

The office is decorated with all the latest posters, from the government.

Staff is either quite well dressed or frightfully sloppy.  Either may seem the latest in style.

More often than one should be, people are told to come back tomorrow, only earlier than today.

Just Needing To Be Heard

They sit at the bar or crowd around it.  They seem so desperately in need of someone to listen to their dreams, dreams that may be quite ordinary or without hope of realization, but which to them are very real and above mere importance.  And when they find someone, it is not significant that they cannot listen.  They just have to hear.

Misaligned Theory

There are times when it seems of no value.  Though the idea is right and the theory still makes sense, the practice won't go along.  We could change the theory to meet the practice, but that wouldn't work either.

In Control of Time

Segments of time are as long or short as we say they are.  If we work in units of single events or of years, they begin and end when we say they do, and so we need not carry into the present more than we can handle or less than we want to remember.

The more precise they tried to be, the more obscure they became

What To Be Grateful For

God, I cannot thank you for the pain, but I can be grateful for the love whose absence causes me to hurt.  I cannot be grateful for loss, but I can thank you for sharing it with us.

Coming Home

The prodigal came back with nothing but himself.  It was more than he left with.

It Is Tomorrow

He ran in shouting, "Wake up, it is tomorrow!"  They told him, "Leave quietly, and come back yesterday."

Choosing Judgment Over Action

Instead of helping the Samaritan, we would rather berate the priest and Levite.

Unintended Consequences

He tried so hard not to look foolish that he ended up looking ridiculous.

Be Careful With People

People are not things.  They are flesh and feeling.  They are very, very real and can be hurt.  Be careful.  You are not playing with statistics or case histories.  This is life and it is your responsibility.  It is sacred.  Do not play games with it.

The Poor Box

Someone robbed the poor box.  Since he was probably poor, it really wasn't theft after all.

Sharing in God

We belong to God, not in a sense of being possessed by him, but rather of membership in him, and him of us.  He does not own us.  Instead he shares what he has and who he is, inviting us to do the same.  He partakes of us so that we might be united to his goodness and holiness.  We each become more complete and each then has more to share.

Responsible to Today

Things yet to come are yet to come and mean little beside what already is.  Our response should instead be to today.  Tomorrow will ask a different question

Overrating Sainthood

Maybe we could stop trying to be saints and try instead to be people.  It is a bit more difficult, but also more worthwhile.

Outgrowing Faith

We may spend time forming, or shaping, or molding children without realizing they grow up and so faith remains for so many a childhood thing, another thing to be outgrown and maybe even missed, but it is not given room in their adult lives.

Being Wrong

People have to be given a chance to be wrong even if they might be very wrong.