Saint  Matthias and St. Maria Caridad Brader

Prayer: “If I am not in God’s will or in God’s grace, may God put me there. And if I am, may God so keep me. Amen.” +

Quickly, I’d like to run through tonight’s readings with you, as I’d found an interesting theme running through each one of them and it is encapsulated in the word “HOME”.

In our 1st reading, speaking of the betrayer Judas Iscariot, St. Peter declares; `Let his home become desolate and let there be no one to live in it'… That’s a very strange thing to say about a man who had renounced everything and had just spent years wandering around with Jesus homeless. What home? “Let his home become desolate!”

The Psalmist asks; “Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle, who may abide upon your holy hill?” Lord, who may make their home with you? In the Psalm we receive this answer; he who is pure of heart AND does no evil is the one who may dwell with the Lord.

In our 2^nd reading, St. Paul says; “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ… Their end is their destruction; their god is the belly… their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship (our home) is with the Lord.”

Jesus says; “I am the vine. If you abide in me (make me your home) and my words abide in you, you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Tonight, we celebrate the lives of two Saints; St. Matthias and St. Maria Caridad Brader. Both Saints were homeless, but while they wandered the earth actively building the Kingdom of the Christ, they lived each day quite at home in the tabernacle of Christ’s love.

A Zen proverb says; “Your treasure house is within you, it contains everything you need.” A wandering Zen monk has written; “Everywhere I roam, whether over mountains or down through the valleys, every step is home.”... These Zen monks and Saints of Christ would have recognized and understood one another, I think. They understood that “home is where the heart is.”

We don’t know much about St. Matthias. After this account in Acts, where Matthias is named “Apostle” to replace Judas, everything becomes confused. I’ve come across no less than 4 differing accounts of what may have happened to Matthias;

1)      He left Judea to preach in Ethiopia and was eventually crucified.

2)      He 1eft Judea to preach in Ethiopia and he eventua11y died at Sebastopo1is and was buried there, near the Temp1e of the Sun.

3)      He was stoned to death by Jews in Jerusalem           and then beheaded.

4)      He died of old age in Jerusalem.

We really just don’t know what happened with this Apostle, his history is lost in the mists of time. But we do know two things; he had been with Jesus from the beginning, he was a disciple. It’s easy for us to forget Jesus had 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples. Matthias was one of the 72 disciples and was considered by the other Apostles to be faithful, to be worthy of leadership. Otherwise, he would not have been nominated. Secondly, he was a wandering Evangelist, from the time that Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to preach the Gospel to the day he died. All of the Apostles were, evangelism  characterized their office. They all felt the Good News was so important that each and every single one of them was willing to speak it – shout it in the streets even! No matter what the consequences. They were jailed, they were whipped, they were tortured, stoned, crucified. None of this stopped them. It didn’t matter. The Good News was THAT compelling, it was burning fire in their bones, they had to grab people in the streets and shout “have you heard this?!”

The Apostles prayed in our reading; “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen…” Clearly, St. Matthias’s heart had made its home in the Lord.

2,000 years later, things weren’t much different for Maria Caridad Brader. She was born in Switzerland in 1860, so she is a modern day Saint and there are photos of her on the internet.

She is reported to have been an unusually intelligent child. Fortunately her mother was wise enough to see this, wise enough to provide the very best education available, and Maria excelled.

I don’t know the details but at some point Maria’s mother was widowed and Maria was the only child. As an only child, I’m sure she was treasured by her mother and the two became very close. Maria must have been a great comfort to her mother. She must have been a source of great pride and joy, being a good child and a child who excelled in school. This bond must have made Maria’s decision to enter a Franciscan Cloister, where she would never see her mother again (and would leave her mother with no family, no hope of grandchildren)… this situation must have made Maria’s decision a difficult and heartbreaking one. But Maria loved Jesus, she loved the Gospel, she loved the vision of God’s kingdom so much that like the Apostles, she left everything and found no sacrifice too great to pay.

The Franciscans were greatly impressed with Maria’s intelligence and put her to work as a teacher at the convent school. Then a call came from a Bishop in Ecuador; please come, we need missionaries! The Mother Superior of the convent volunteered 6 of her nuns including Maria, saying; “Sr. Caridad will go to the missionary foundation; she is supremely generous, shows no reluctance to any sacrifice, and with her extraordinary practical sense and education will be able render great services to the mission”. Wow! I’d like to have that on my resume!

Mother Superior’s prophecy came true too. After teaching in Ecuador for several years, St. Maria went on mission to Columbia, and it is said; “she loved the locals and spared no efforts to reach them, braving the wild breakers of the ocean, the tangled undergrowth of the jungle, and the intense cold of the high plateaus. Her zeal knew no bounds. She was concerned above all with the poor, the outcast and those who did not yet know the Gospel.”

One of the things you might not know is, when the missionary nuns of these times went out into the wilderness they would end up building their own convents, churches and schools. Usually, they would first build temporary log cabins. Then, they would start baking bricks in their ovens and carrying them to the site of the permanent buildings.

St. Maria may have been unique in her day, I don’t know for sure, but once she was established – she educated and empowered the locals to become missionaries and church leaders. She did not cling to power, but handed it to the natives of Ecuador and Columbia. She came to give them a love for Jesus, to share the vision of building the Kingdom and then she stepped out of their way so they could do just that.

Thinking about St. Maria, you might ask yourself these questions; When was the last time I walked a mile in the cold? When was the last time I slept outside? When was the last time I was uncertain of where my next meal was coming from? When was the last time I was thirsty or hungry? When was the last time I gathered up the courage to invite someone to Church? Or gathered up the courage to speak about Jesus and the Good News in a setting where such speech would be unpopular or even condemned?... Now we don’t have to sleep outside, we don’t have to walk for miles in the cold, we don’t have to go out into the wilderness where our food sources are uncertain, we don’t have to make those kinds of sacrifices. But it’s important to think about those who did, to wonder just what compelled them to do those crazy things! It’s also important to think about what kinds of crazy sacrifices we CAN make in this day and age, and even more important to ask ourselves if we are really moved by the love and vision of Christ to make them – or not.

”Home is where the heart is”, where is your heart tonight? A great question for Lent, when we strive to be most honest with ourselves.

Sometimes, the greatest wisdom and most profound theology can be found in the most surprising places. Just want to post a jewel of an excerpt from one of my favorite books. I'd first read it in grade school (who thought that was a good idea?! It's full of extremely adult material!) and this particular scene has stayed with me all of my life.To set up the scene, a vampire has broken into a home, killed a boy's mother and now taken the boy (Mark) hostage.

Mark had uttered a high, keening scream and threw himself at Barlow without thought.

"And here you are!" Barlow had boomed good naturedly in his rich, powerful voice. Mark attacked without thought and was captured instantly. Father Callahan moved forward, holding his cross up.

Barlow's grin of triumph was instantly transformed into a rictus of agony. He fell back toward the sink, dragging the boy in front of him. Their feet crunched in the broken glass.

"In God's Name -" Callahan began. At the name of the Deity, Barlow screamed aloud as if he had been struck by a whip, his mouth open in a downward grimace, the needle fangs glimmering within. The cords of muscle on his neck stood out in stark, etched relief. "No closer!" he said. "No closer, shaman! Or I sever the boy's jugular and carotid before you can draw a breath!" As he spoke, his upper lip lifted from those long, needlelike teeth, and as he finished his head made a predatory downward pass with adder's speed, missing Mark's flesh by a quarter inch. Callahan stopped.

"Back up," Barlow commanded, now grinning again. "You on your side of the board and I on mine, eh?"

 Callahan backed up slowly, still holding the cross before him at eye level, so that he looked over its arms. The cross seemed to thrum with chained fire, and its power coursed up his forearm until the muscles bunched and trembled.  They faced each other...

 "What now?"  Callahan said, and his voice was not his own at all. He was looking at Barlow's fingers, those long, sensitive fingers, which lay against the boy's throat. There were small blue blotches on them. 

"That depends. What will you give me for this miserable wretch?" He suddenly jerked Mark's wrists high behind his back, obviously hoping to punctuate his question with a scream, but Mark would not oblige. Except for the sudden whistle of air between his teeth, he was silent. "You'll scream," Barlow whispered, and his lips had twisted into a grimace of animal hate. "You'll scream until your throat bursts!"  

"Stop that!" Callahan cried. 

"And should I? The hate was wiped from his face. A darkly charming smile shone forth in its place. "Should I reprieve the boy, save him for another night?"  

"Yes!"

 Softly, amost purring, Barlow said, "Then will you throw away your cross and face me on even terms - black against white? Your faith against my own?" 

"Yes," Callahan said, but a trifle less firmly. 

"Then do it!" Those full lips became pursed, anticipatory. The high forehead gleamed in the weird fairy light that filled the room. 

"And trust you to let him go? I would be wiser to put a rattlesnake in my shirt and trust it not to bite me." But he let Mark go and stood back, both hands in the air, empty. "Run, Mark," Callahan cried. "Run!"...

Mark slowly got to his feet. He turned around and looked at Barlow.  "Soon, little brother," Barlow said, almost benignly. "Very soon now, you and I will-" Mark spit in his face. "You spit on me," Barlow whispered. His body was trembling, nearly rocking with rage. He took a shuddering step forward like some awful blind man. 

"Get back!" Callahan screamed, and thrust the cross forward.Barlow cried out and threw his hands in front of his face. The cross flared with preternatural, dazzling brilliance, and it was at that moment that Callahan might have banished him if he had dared to press forward. 

"I'm going to kill you," Mark said.  He was gone, like a dark eddy of water. 

"...fulfill your part of the bargain, shaman."

"I'm a priest!" Callahan flung at him. 

Barlow made a small, mocking bow. "Priest," he said, and the word sounded like a dead haddock in his mouth. 

Callahan stood undecisive. Why throw it down? Drive him off, settle for a draw tonight, and tomorrow - 

But a deeper part of his mind warned. To deny the vampire's challenge was to risk possibilities far graver than any he had considered. If he dared not throw the cross aside, it would be as much as admitting... admitting... what? If only things weren't going so fast, if one only had time to think, to reason it out -  

The cross's glow was dying. He looked at it, eyes widening. Fear leaped into his belly like a confusion of hot wires. His head jerked up and he stared at Barlow. He was walking toward him across the kitchen and his smile was wide, almost voluptuous. 

"Stay back," Callahan said hoarsely, retreating a step. "I command it in the name of God."

Barlow laughed at him. The glow in the cross was only a thin and guttering light in a cruciform shape. The shadows had crept across the vampire's face again, masking his features in strangely barbaric lines and triangles under the sharp cheekbones.

Callahan took another step backward, and his buttocks bumped the kitchen table, which was set against the wall.

"Nowhere left to go," Barlow murmured sadly. His dark eyes bubbled with infernal mirth. "Sad to see a man's faith fail. Ah well..."

The cross trembled in Callahan's hand and suddenly the last of its light vanished. It was only a piece of plaster that is mother had bought in a Dublin souvenir shop, probably at a scalper's price. The power it had sent ramming up his arm, enough power to smash down walls and shatter stone, was gone. The muscles remembered the thrumming but could not duplicate it.

Barlow reached from the darkness and plucked the cross from his fingers. Callahan cried out miserably... and the next sound would haunt him for the rest of his life; two dry snaps as Barlow broke the arms of the cross, and a meaningless thump as he threw it on the floor. 

"Goddamn you!" Callahan cried out. 

" It's too late for such melodrama," Barlow said from the darkness. There is no need of it. You have forgotten the doctrine of your own church, is it not so? The cross... the bread and the wine... the confessional... only symbols. Without faith, the cross is only wood, the bread baked wheat, the wine sour grapes. If you had cast the cross away, you should have beaten me another night. In a way, I hoped it might be so. It has been long since I have met an opponent of any real worth. The boy makes ten of you, false priest." 

Suddenly, out of the darkness, hands of amazing strength gripped Callahan's shoulders... He remembered Matt saying: Some things are worse than death.

- Salem's lot

Stephen King

Pages 351 - 355 

Celebrating the 600th Birthday of St. Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc

Prayer: “If I am not in God’s will or in God’s grace, may God put me there. And if I am, may God so keep me.”

I’m very much aware that Church of Our Saviour has a long tradition of being devoted to the rules of non-violent protest. I’ve lost count how many copies Mother Paula has put into my hands over the years. Honestly, the non-violent way is the way I honor most. But St. Joan of Arc reminds us of the truth found in Ecclesiastes;

 “There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the sun:

There is a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to love and a time to hate, 
a time for war and a time for peace.”

To quote a magnificent documentary I’d just watched; “Joan of Arc was literally born and died in flames.” When she was born, January 6, 1412, the English had already been at war, destroying France for nearly 90 years. Joan watched as the English destroyed not only cities, but set fire to villages and crops, leaving her neighbors homeless and starving, leaving them that much easier to defeat. She watched as plagues, caused by the conditions of war, ravaged her neighbors. Naturally, Joan was angry and horrified. Surely, she cried to the Lord for mercy, for an end to war.

Perhaps, Joan should have been a little more careful about what she prayed for! When she was 13 years old, this young farm girl began to hear the voices of St. Catherine, St. Margaret and St. Michael. Among the things they told her was, her mission was two-fold;

1)      YOU fight the English, YOU stop them from starving and killing your people, as well as raping the land of its resources).

2) You make the way for Charles, the French Dauphin, to be crowned King of France.

Since the birth of modern psychiatry, it’s been popular for cynics to say St. Joan was schizophrenic. The truth is, there is no good evidence for this, none. Schizophrenics are often lost to reality, lost in the hallucinations of their own minds. There is no evidence that this was true of Joan. Her powers of observation and her wits were razor sharp, she was in full control of her faculties at all times.

So, how does a mere peasant girl go from her farm to see the Dauphin in his castle? It wasn’t easy. Joan’s family had forbidden her for years to make the journey and I’m sure made her know there would be dire consequences for disobedience. But Joan’s Saints gave her no rest and even though it meant disobeying her parents she was determined to go, saying; “If I have to walk and wear my legs down to the knees, I will go!”

Then she had to get past the nobility, in the form of Sir Robert de Baudricourt, who sent her away in humiliation 3 times, saying “her father should give her a good beating.” When at last, Joan convinced Sir Robert that she had a true vision for rescuing France from the iron fist of the English, she was then put the test in the court of the Dauphin. She was let into the court but not told which man was the heir to the French throne. They figured, if she was truly sent by God, she would recognize the future king no matter what disguise he wore or how hidden he may be. And she did! For Joan had the gift of prophecy. Joan so convinced Charles that she was sent by God to resurrect France that he made her the head of his army. A breath-taking moment in world history, Joan, at the age of 17 was and remains the youngest person to ever lead an army.

The army that Joan was put in charge of was embarrassed and resentful of her presence. Who was this little girl, who had no knowledge of strategy and no experience with weapons? There was no way these battle-hardened men were going to listen to her, regardless of what Charles commanded.

Not only that, but this army was demoralized. They had been fighting for generations and France was all but lost. They fought half-heartedly during the day, and at night they went back to their tents to gamble and spend time with prostitutes. From the generals to the lowliest warriors, they were full of their own ideas and own experiences, they had no room and no patience for Joan’s visions.

Joan was driven by compassion for her people and counse1ed by her voices, not the least of which was St. Michael the Archangel, defender of the military, the greatest strategic mind that God ever created. So, it didn’t matter if these warriors were full of their own ideas, Joan proceeded to empty them. She sent the prostitutes away, far away. She forbid the soldiers to gamble and she even forbid them to cuss or swear. Finally, she sent them all to Confession.

After Joan emptied these men, she filled them. She insisted that they begin each day with Eucharist. She also told them it was time to stop playing at war, time to focus and get serious. Just because the sun was going down didn’t mean the battle was over and they could all go back to their comfortable tents, eat dinner and go to bed. No! Joan told them, keep fighting! Fight until there is a winner or a loser. Period. In this way, she changed the face of war forever. So, she not only filled her men with a love for Eucharist, but with focus and determination.

She never asked her men to do anything she wouldn’t do. Joan was often at the head of every charge, twice she was wounded in battle, both times she fought to return to the battle field and had to be restrained at the rear until healed. This did not go un-noticed, so she also filled her men with admiration and a passion to see her mission fulfilled.

As a result, we see things like; Joan’s army annihilated the English at Patay, killing over 2,000 while suffering no losses themselves! And, Joan did see her Dauphin crowned King at Rheims.

Although Joan had a genius for war, she didn’t  love it. In fact, she hated it. She’s reported as saying; “every time I see French blood flow, my hair stands on end!”

Joan hated war so much, she often sent warnings to the English telling them to go home, telling them  she didn’t want to see them die and buried in the fields of France. Since Joan’s army had so much success, many of the English did heed her warnings and abandoned the fight to go home. This became a problem and the English warlords saw that Joan had to be discredited, if not killed.

These days, our leaders often demonize our enemies. How many times have we heard these sayings? “Better dead than Red” or, “The Axis of Evil”? Joan was very unusual in that she refused to demonize the English, she said; “I don’t know whether God loves or hates the English. I only know they will be cast out of France.” How very remarkable.  If only for this reason, for seeing her enemies has human beings worthy of compassion, she was rightly Sainted!

These are more than just words! It’s been noted that once, an English soldier fell near her, mortally wounded. In her compassion, she bent to  help him and comfort him, but he soon died.

Lent is coming, quickly, you may want to ask yourselves; Do I see my neighbor’s land being taken away? Do I see my neighbor’s going hungry? Do I see my neighbor’s being denied medical care? For those of you taking stock of the challenges in your lives and the changes you want to make both in your own lives and in the communities around you, St. Joan has shown you the way; remove the inane distractions and little sins in your lives that are blocking your progress, make a good Confession, devote yourself to the Eucharist, make a plan on how to remove that evi1 and rep1ace it with good. Focus on that p1an, have a passion for it. Then and only then, will we see peace and relief of suffering. Joan knew these things, she worked for them, she died for them.

Although Joan’s army turned the tide and went a long way toward driving the English out of France, she was captured by the English. She was put on trial as a heretic and as a witch. It didn’t matter that the Church of France had investigated Joan’s entire life for months on end and had found her to be a faithful and good Christian. The English had to discredit her, humiliate her and demonize her. And they did. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431, at the age of 19, because she refused to deny her mission from God and she chose to stand by her convictions. What courage! It took me almost 43 years to be ab1e to stand by my convictions. Joan said; “One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live a lie, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”

Happy 600^th birthday, Joan! The Victory is yours.

Signs of Life in the Midst of Death

Have been receiving so many messages that tell me there is life in the midst of death. For example, the other night, I was out front in the wee hours of the night, I saw a Buck in the cemetery, not twenty feet away. Deer, among other things are symbols of fertility... Also, not long ago, I was walking through the nature preserve and I was praying my rosary. It was about 5:30 in the evening, the sun still bright in the sky. As I was praying; "Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death", I heard two owls strike up a conversation. I can't remember ever hearing two owls sing and call back and forth, up 'till now, I've only ever heard one at a time. Anyway, it's poignant, that line: "Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death". It might as well read; "Mommy, don't leave me, don't abandon me, I don't want to be alone at the hour of death"... Owls are, among other things, messengers of death and change. And to hear two calling back and forth as I prayed that line, it was a sign of assurance for me, that I am not praying alone, someone is praying with me.

These voices keep singing to me: do not despair, do not give up hope.- July 12, 2011

Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

I don’t often speak on the subject of the supernatural, preferring to have a very

earthly theology. Often, I find that miracles and supernatural events are

distractions from the work of social justice. My Grandmother gave me the best

piece of advice; “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.”…

But I’d like to take this opportunity to say; I do believe in angels. I do believe

in miracles. And tonight is the night to celebrate them.

 What is an angel? What does an angel look like? Would you recognize one if you

saw one?

 When most of us think of the word “angel”, we think of what the Bible calls a

“Seraph” or a “Cherub”. We think of a wondrous and sometimes terrifying

creature that appears as a human with wings.

 But often, when the word “angel” is translated, it is not describing a kind of

creature, but simply means; “messenger”.

In the book of Genesis, there is the story Balaam’s donkey. Balaam was a prophet,

or magician who was contracted by a king to put a curse on Israel. While Balaam was on his way to mountaintop to look over Israel and pronounce the curse, the donkey  kept turning aside, would

wander off the road. The reason the donkey was doing this was, unbeknownst to

Balaam, there was a Defending Angel with a sword standing in the road, waiting

to strike Balaam down. The donkey could see the angel, but Balaam could not.

And so Balaam would beat the donkey until he returned to the road. Finally, God

gives the donkey the gift of human speech and he says; “Master, have I ever

disobeyed you before? Why do you keep beating me, when I’m working to save your

life?”… How many angels were in this story? One or two? I’ll say there are two

angels, two messengers, the donkey being one of them, as he is given the power

to proclaim an eye-opening revelation and message to choose between Mercy and life,

or Violence and Death. Famous psychic, George Anderson says; “animals, especially

our pets, are the eyes of God.”

 Another weird story and even hilarious story can be found in the Book of Acts. Peter

has been imprisoned by the Romans. Now, this event isn’t just an equivalent to

going to jail in the modern U.S.A., where the prisoner is fed daily, given the

opportunity to see a doctor if the prisoner is sick or maybe even given the

opportunity to leave as a reward for good behavior. Being imprisoned by the

Romans was a fearful thing, torture was real possibility, as Jesus found out

when he was crowned with thorns, mocked and beaten. Death, execution was

expected… So, when Peter escapes prison (with the help of an angel) and knocks

on the door of a friend’s house – listen to what is said. Acts 11:13-15 says;

“Peter knocked at the outside door, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer it.

She recognized Peter’s voice and was so happy that she ran back in without

opening the door, and announced that Peter was standing outside. ‘You’re

crazy!’ they told her. But she insisted that it was true. So they answered, ‘It

is his angel.’”

Hear that! “It is his angel.”… Peter’s friends have already given him up for dead.

They can’t, cannot believe he is alive in the midst of their grieving. What

they’ve just said is; “it must be his ghost.” So, what we see here is, it was

believed that human spirits of the deceased could also act as angels, as

messengers of God.

 Would you recognize an angel if one came your way? Maybe we shouldn’t look at

the form, so much as we should look at what they do.

 Obviously, since the word “angel” so often translates as “messenger”, we would

expect angels to proclaim the Good News, or at least to offer the message;

“choose ye this day the path of life or the path of Death”… It’s interesting to

note, by the way, the Creation of the world and multiverse (as related to us in

the Book of Genesis) begins with “and God said”! It begins with the utterances

of the Creator. In the Gospel of luke, the Covenant of God through Christ has

two-stage beginning; the first stage is when Mary says; “Yes! Let it be so!”

and the second stage is when the choir of Angels, the Shekinah of God, the

shepherds and the pagan Magi and all the creatures of the world are singing of

the glory of the birth of Jesus. Jesus later gives Christians the duty of

speaking out, of proclaiming the kingdom of God in the Great Commission. Jesus,

whom the Apostle John calls the “logos”, the Creative Word of God. And we have

come full circle. No wonder Jesus said that our words have great power and to

be careful with them, to let our yeses be a simple yes and our nos be a simple

no.

 But angels, as we have seen in the reading from the Book of Revelation, do so much more than simply function as the mouth of God. St. Michael is portrayed in the Bible and in folklore as defending first the Jews and then later also the Christians from forces of evil. There is Raphael, the physician angel, who heals us; mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And there are 13 more Archangels, each with their own specific ministry. But as we have seen, in the first reading and then through the Gospel, there are whole legions of angels going to and fro, through Christ, attending to the needs of the world and multiverse – hearing your cries and attending to your needs. And rather than giving you a dry list of names and functions, I’d rather share a couple more rich portraits to really bring the ministry of angels home to your hearts.

What do angels do?

There is the story of the prophet, I think it was Elijah, in the desert. And

the raven brings him bread… Angels attend to our physical needs. But there’s so

much more to this story. The raven has wings, it is able to travel from heaven

to earth and back again as a messenger. In this particular case, the raven is

descending from heaven to earth to feed the prophet. Bread from Heaven, it recalls

Mannah, it foretells the Eucharist – it is Christ. The angel is bringing Christ

to the prophet. The angels thus draw us to the sacraments and minister to our

spiritual needs as well.

In recent weeks, I’d been reading the diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska of Poland. She was a modern woman,

she’d lived during the early decades of the 1900’s, dying shortly before World War II. She was a mystic and had many visions.

 St. Faustina, unfortunately, was also frequently very ill, dying of cancer while

she was in her early 30’s… There were times when she was had to be sent to the

secular hospital, which was 90 miles away from the convent. In those days, that was quite a formidable distance and so, her sister-nuns were not able to visit often, and St. Faustina did not always have a priest available

either. These were desperate times for the poor woman, because she was extremely devoted to the sacraments of Confession and Communion. And when I say “extremely” devoted, I do mean “extreme”.

 When the opportunities presented themselves, Faustina would attend Mass and receive

Communion on a daily basis and would attend Confession on a weekly basis. When she was left to languish in the secular hospital, without access to the sacraments, she would fall into depression – she felt as if she’d been led out

into the desert and was withering up and dying. But just as God sent the raven to the prophet in the desert, God sent a ministering angel to Faustina in the hospital. St. Faustina described this particular angel as a Seraph or Cherub,

as appearing human but with wings. Interestingly enough, the angel appeared in her cell with the Bread and Wine prepared to give Faustina Eucharist. (I have to note that the angel did not consecrate the Bread and Wine, leading us to believe that it had been consecrated earlier and most likely by the great High Priest Christ himself.) But St. Faustina stopped the angel. She said; “Angel, before you give me Communion will you hear my Confession?” The Angel looked upon her with a sad smile and said; “I cannot. There is only One who forgives sins and He has reserved that ministry for priests.”

So here, friends, is yet another kind of ministering angel, your priest. An angel who is able consecrate your Eucharist and to hear your Confession and to profess the forgiveness of God, the healing of God and reconciliation of the Church Community.

Feast of St. Luke

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Luke, the writer of the Gospel and the book of Acts. Luke was a first century, Gentile Christian. Some sources say that Luke was one of the 70 missionaries that Jesus sent out, some say that he was one of the disciples that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection, while on the Road to Emmaus. Others have said that Luke had a special friendship with our Lady, Mary. We can’t know any of this for sure. 


What we do know for sure is that Luke was a physician and faithful companion to St. Paul. He accompanied Paul on  missionary journies and Luke remained in Rome, serving Paul while he was in prison, until the day that Paul was beheaded by Roman authorities… And if you’re familiar with the scriptures, with the stories of St. Paul, it’s not hard to see why Paul needed his best friend to be a physician! Paul was forever in need of an emergency room, whether because he was starving in some remote wilderness, suffering from the cold, being bitten by snakes – or, because he was always offending somebody and being beaten up or being stoned and left for dead! There’s no doubt that St. Paul kept his beloved Doctor quite busy. 


I wouldn’t doubt that Luke waited until after Paul’s death to write the Gospel and the Book of Acts. Fortunately for us, he lived to be 84 years before he died in old age and he had plenty of time to write. And he did. The commentary  I’d turned to for guidance says that Luke actually contributed more material to the New Testament than any other writer, including Paul. I’m a little skeptical. But it’s not so much how much St. Luke wrote that counts, but what he wrote… 


Luke is my favorite author in the Bible. Countless books have been written about his intellect, his charm, his good humor, his emphasis on compassion and social justice… I could go on and on about the joyous wonder that is St. Luke! For one thing, if he had not written the Book of Acts, we have would have precious little idea regarding the day-to-day lives of the first century church – no other new testament author has given us so many detailed and delightful stories (as opposed to letters)… Anyway, as I was saying, I could go on and on about the joyous wonder that is St. Luke, but I’d rather buckle down and focus on one of Luke’s more unique contributions, his particular portrait of what the Good News is.

Anyone who has studied the gospels knows; each one of the gospel writers gives us a slightly different portrait of Jesus and a different picture of what the “Good News” is. St. Matthew, for example, presents Jesus as Messiah, Suffering Son of Man and the one who will render justice for everyone at the End of time. St. John portrays Jesus in a very mystical way, he is the Logos, the creative Word of God and the Passover Lamb. Luke portrays Jesus as the compassionate Liberator, he has Jesus in the temple reading; 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free…” This is not the only reference that Luke makes to the poor, the lame, the blind, the outcast. His entire gospel is a parade of the poor being provided for, the blind and lame being healed, the outcast being embraced by Jesus. Throughout the entire gospel, Luke creates a “Table Theology”, where God’s Kingdom is portrayed as a banquet and ALL are invited! – without exception. It’s a joyous riot! It would be easy to mistake this for the whole of Luke’s “Good News”. But if we do, we miss something so profound, something that is so powerful that it raises the hair on my arms and my neck.

To illustrate for you what I mean, let’s compare Jesus’s birth story in Matthew with Luke’s story about Mary and the angel Gabriel: Matthew 1:18 ”This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.” That’s it. One verse. That’s all. In the very next verse, we read; “And meanwhile back on the ranch, Joseph was contemplating divorce.”… Matthew completely drops Mary, completely drops the Holy Spirit and focuses on Joseph.

Compare that one single verse to the long, lyrical and poignant story that Luke gives us in our Gospel! Luke is highlighting this event, he’s trying to tell us something.

I’ve read the Bible cover-to-cover more than 7 times, I’ve studied it for years at college. And for me, Luke’s story of Gabriel’s Annunciation to Mary and Mary’s “Yes!” is the most profound, most powerful passage – it is the hub that the entire wheel of the Bible and the Church revolves around, without it we have NOTHING. This here, is the Good News – that God chose Mary to be a co-worker and intimate partner in Creation and Salvation. And may I add, if God felt that he needed Mary, still needs Mary – who are we to think that we do not?

I mean, really, think about it. God is reportedly All Powerful, All Knowing, All loving, etc… He could have had Jesus appear, full bodied and fully grown in the middle of the Temple, ready to take charge – Instant Salvation… Why not? The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses reportedly did. For that matter, so what? So Adam and Eve screwed up, we as the human race have screwed up, so what? As the Scripture says; “love covers a multitude of sins”, why couldn’t God just say; “I love you, forgive you.” And let that be the whole of Salvation? Why this long, bloody, passion play that we call human history? Why the long, wandering missionary journies of Jesus? Why that horrific Crucifixion? We can guess some of the reasons, others will remain mysteries ‘till the end of the time.

Whatever the reasons, God decided he needed Mary. And he decided that he needed her for more than just an incubator for his only Begotten Son… He needed her to feed Jesus, to clothe him, to hold and cuddle him, to teach him how to walk, to teach him good manners, to discipline him, to play with him, to teach him, to kiss his boo-boos. God needed her to devote her LIFE, first to Jesus and then as Luke testifies in the book of Acts, to devote her life to the mothering and care of the first century Church… This is exciting stuff! God needs Mary, he wants Mary, he works and plays in intimate partnership with Mary. As Paul would say, God is closer to Mary than her very breath.

What makes Mary so special? Why her? My answer to you, and Luke’s answer to you is; Mary is special only in the fact that she was First. Everything you see, hear or read about Mary, is true for you as a believer, too. This what Luke was saying in the story of the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit over-shadowed Mary and she gave birth to the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit over-shadowed the Believers and they, too, joyously gave birth to the Body of Christ. God decided he needed you, and you, and you… And just in case you didn’t get it the first two times, Luke thought this message was so very important that he tells the story yet a third time! Acts 10:44-46 Peter was in the home of Cornelius, a captain in the Roman army… ”While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message. The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God’s greatness.   Just for giggles, let’s compare these 3 “Pentecost” stories by Luke with the Pentecost story found in the Gospel of John.

John 20:19-22 ”It was late that Sunday evening, and the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities. Then Jesus came and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. After sayign this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so I send you.’ Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”Pentecost gets two whole verses in the Gospel of John and no mention in Mark or Matthew. Again, Luke is highlighting these 3 events, he’s trying emphasize something incredible and profound. Luke is trying to tell you something.

Luke is saying that salvation is collective, it must happen in community. He’s saying that God needs you, and you, and you… God needs you to feed the hungry, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, give your neighbor a hug and a smile, he needs you pray and to love – to work with him in bringing Tikkun Olam; that is healing, justice and love to the world.

And guess what? The Church agrees with Luke. As I’d mentioned on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the Consecration of Eucharist and the Forgiveness of sins in Confession are services reserved for the Priest. But it is equally true, that without you – there are no sacraments. You are co-creators with God, you are birthing Christ… You know this because you are called to participate in Mass, as opposed to just sitting passively and watching the priest do all the work for you. When I was a child, we used to kneel in adoration during the consecration of the Eucharist, God and the priest performed this sacramental act alone and we, the Faithful were passive recipients. The Church decided, however, that this was not a truly representative portrait of how our salvation is worked. So, now we are asked to stand, with the priest (who stands as representative of God), we are asked to pray out loud with the priest (who stands as representative of God) and work together with God to manifest the Christ – in just the same way that God and Mary worked together. This is the Good News, the incredible news, the profound news. God wants to be closer to you than your very next breath, he wants to work and to play in an intimate way with you to heal the world, to transform the world, to  bring something Divine and wonderful into being.  

Feast of the Faithful Departed

Do you know where or why the custom of “trick or treating”, the custom of going door to door began? In the northern European countries, there were two seasons, Summer and Winter, the season of light and the season of dark. When the days grew longer, members of the village would look for the first flowers on the trees and from the ground. When they were spotted, it became the custom for the messengers to cut them and run door to door with the flowers as proof of the good news; “Spring is here! Soon will be time to plant. The time of winter hunger is soon over.” These messengers were considered to be sacred, messengers of the Divine and they were given treats… The same was true for the oncoming winter. The messengers would run door to door, with apples, cut wheat and other symbols of the harvest just past, and announce the on-coming darkness, announce the coming of the winter. These messengers, too, were given treats. Now, of course, the first tradition is no longer practiced and is largely forgotten, just a footnote in history.

Such is the power of this Fall season, though, that even though we no longer live our lives on the farm, we still feel the darkness and marvel at the falling of autumn’s leaves. There is a stark and disquieting beauty that enchants us this time of year, so we continue to celebrate; Halloween, Dia de la Muertos, Samhain. For millennia, this time of year has been a time of slowing down, physically and mentally, after the harvests were over. Traditionally, 3 harvests are recognized by Reconstructionist historians; wheat/corn harvest end of August, the apple harvest at the end of September, the blood harvest at the end of October… I can hear you now, the WHAT harvest? The blood harvest… After the wheat and the apple harvests were gathered in, the farmers had to take stock. They had to ask; do we have enough food and resources to last the family through the winter? Do we have enough food and resources to last the livestock through the winter? Very often, the answer was; we have enough food to last for only half of our livestock. The rest of the herd was slaughtered and the meat preserved, to last the family through winter. Thus, the term “blood harvest”.

With the darkness and cold descending, the leaves dying and falling off the trees, the animals fleeing into hibernation and the gruesome blood harvest – it’s not hard to see why our ancestors would find this to be the time for taking an inner inventory as well, they found this time of the year to be the perfect time for our version of “lent”. They would reflect on their behavior and achievements of the year past, choose bad habits to drop and good habits to develop, making goals for themselves in the up-coming year… We can read some of these goals in the “Havamal”, an ancient book of European wisdom.

We would read;

”Feed your animals before you eat.”

Or this exhortation to practice hospitality;

” Fire is needed by the newcomer 

Whose knees are frozen numb; 

Meat and clean linen a man needs 

Who has fared across the icy fells,”

Or this exhortation to avoid drunkenness;

” Less good than belief would have it 

Is mead for the sons of men: 

A man knows less the more he drinks, 

He becomes a befuddled fool,”

What do any of these pagan practices and pagan scriptures have to do with Jesus? What do they have to do with the “Faithful Departed?” Our history, both European and Guatemalan both, have come down to us with stories about some of our ancestors refusing to abandon their heritage, refusing to accept forced Christian conversions. Stories about our cultures being in conflict with Christianity, one side being good and the other being depicted as evil. But it didn’t have to be that way.

We are Christians now, that is why we are here, but… I don’t know about you, but I can’t leave my pre-Christian ancestors behind. I can’t say; “those people were evil, they belong to the Devil and we should forget everything they’ve ever said and done.”… They were not evil, they don’t belong to the Devil. God must be faithful, God must be just and God must be love – he is the fount of all wisdom, and since my ancestors and your ancestors

obviously held wisdom in their oral and written traditions, God must have been speaking to them in some way. Romans chapter 1 tells us that God has made himself clearly known through the things he has made, and Ecclesiastes says that God has set eternity in our hearts.

So, I have to stop and look at the question; “Who are the Faithful Departed”? Can I trust God, can I put my hope in him, without denying who I am, ancestral memories, ancestral inheritance and all? After all, I love and treasure each one of my relations. If I ask the question: Who are the Faithful Departed, what would God say?

let’s start with the words of Jesus, from the gospel of luke: you will know them by their fruit. A good person brings good out of the treasure of good things in his heart: a bad person brings bad out of his treasure of bad things… It really is that simple.

Jesus brings this lesson home in one of my favorite parables, in Matthew 21:28-32, which reads:

  28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

   29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

   30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

   31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

   “The first,” they answered.

   Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did, they repented. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

In this parable we see that Jesus looks past what people say, past what they profess, and looks to what they do. For Jesus, actions speak louder than words, actions tell us the state of a person’s heart.

Our reading from Galatians goes a step further and really spells out what we’re to look for. The fruits of the spirit are: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Finally, if we still have any doubts, 1 Colossians reads; “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

The Faithful Departed, my friends, are those who have led righteous lives of love and compassion, doing the very best they could with the resources they had. We can feel free to honor all of our ancestors, Christian and pre-Christian, with all of the love in our hearts and with clear consciences. Thanks be to God!

Because we can trust God with our past, we can trust him with our future.

We, too, can live lives manifesting the fruits of the spirit, we can be God’s eyes and God’s healing hands, looking forward to that day that Isaiah told us about: the day when God “will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world, when he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations.” All the nations, all peoples, no exceptions.

And now let us follow in the Psalmist’s example and bring a wine offering to the lord, to thank him for  his goodness to us.