TableTalk, Wednesday 27 B: BEING IN LINE

The first reading of today’s Mass gives a clear picture of Paul’s relationship with the first Pope and Curia.  What can the Church today learn from it?

First of all, we can see clearly that God gives strong gifts to members of the Church who are not part of the hierarchy.  Paul received the Gospel from Christ himself, independently of the then current teaching authority of the Church.  This tells us that God is ultimately in charge of the Christian project to redeem the world and is the ultimate strategist for the Kingdom.

Second, independent or not, Paul is given a revelation to go to Peter and others of the Twelve to verify that he is teaching the same Gospel as they.  The then hierarchy agreed with Paul’s proclamation and his right to proclaim.  It seems obvious from this that God wishes one message spoken, a unity of faith in the Church, that goes beyond personality and personal charism.  Each gifted member, then, has the duty to ensure this by realizing communion with the leadership.

Within the context of the mutual handshake, Paul confronts the first Pope with his error.  Peter was living one way as a Christian (not observing the Law of Moses himself) and yet talking another way to Gentile converts (requiring them to observe the Law).  The hypocrisy was born of Peter’s fear of the faction in the community that insisted on observance of Mosaic Law as part of Christian practice.  Paul saw that Peter and his colleagues “were not on the right road in line with the truth of the Gospel” and he dared to speak up.  He boldly unmasked Peter and corrected his point of view with Gospel arguments.  It is Paul’s position, not Peter’s, that was subsequently embraced in Christian history.  All of this tells us that dissent is legitimate, sometimes necessary, in the Church as long as it speaks the Gospel truth.  And that is the great challenge of any dissenter.

The Church today, to be true to its call, should take care not to deny this Paul and Peter story in any of its aspects. 

TableTalk, Tuesday 27 Ordinary B: SURPRISE

Paul says today, “So they glorified God because of me.”   That was quite a change in the prayer life of the early Church, which, I am sure, had been on its knees begging God for deliverance from this murderous religious zealot who pursued them even into their homes.  Paul’s conversion caught everyone by total surprise and was the occasion for the Church to rejoice again in God’s deep love for those who follow Jesus.  No one expected this.

That kind of surprise always happens with the experience of the Cross.  The very cause of suffering becomes the vehicle of blessing.  We are surprised because human eyes alone cannot see this in the pain of the moment.  The suffering in body, mind or spirit hounds us.  We cry to heaven for escape.  We do not know that the Cross is leading to a blessing for our lives that could not have been ours otherwise.  God is bigger than the evil we suffer.

Coming to this mentality is a task for our whole Christian life.  As Martha in the Gospel reading today, we are busy about many things, many good things.  We are even energized by all the services we render—until we are hit by the Cross.  That is something we feel should not be happening to us.  It does not fit with what we thought our life was about, with what we thought God was about.  Our suffering even intensifies because of that.

How to get the whole picture?  The Gospel speaks the answer clearly today.  We must have “Mary time” with some regularity, quietly sitting at the feet of the Lord, face up into the Sun, allowing the truth of Christian life to stream into us.  We need “Mary time,” if even a couple of minutes each day, to have our thoughts reshaped, our expectations refined, our spirits prepared.  To not choose this “better part” is to leave ourselves victim to suffering, condemned to a thousand useless deaths.  The “better part” helps us see through to the depths of the “bad” experience, to the hidden resurrection emerging from the tomb.  That is absolutely surprising to any of us.  And it changes our prayer--eventually--from desperate plea to thankful praise.

TableTalk, Sunday, 27 Ordinary, B: MARRIAGE

The Word opens with the contemporary and controversial question:  who is the "suitable partner" for Adam?  Genesis boldly responds:  there is none, except woman.  In the Gospel of the day, Jesus states the bottom line about their union:  once united, always united.

What to recommend for staying married?  First, that each of the two spouses should know self, one's personal needs, goals, potential, limits.  The self is the gift given to the other.  What kind of gift is the unknown?

Second, each spouse must know the other through communication.  The dialogue of all dialogues is the mutual posing and answering of questions like:  how are you today?  what do you need today?  how can I love you today?  how can I be more married to you today?  how am I doing as a parent with you today?  All other dialogues eventually falter without attention to this kind of verbal and non-verbal talk. And marriage soon becomes a pair of individualists living side by side without ever touching.

Third, spouses must share and hold to a good and solid vision of marriage.  In Christian tradition, this involves seeing marriage always as a triangle between the one, the other and God.  It means living into one flesh, rather than negotiating the terms of contract. Good and solid vision accepts the marriage union as indissoluble, fundamentally unbreakable, and proposes fidelity without fudging in any way.  The vision embraces the principle that marriage is open to procreation.  (In Catholic perspective, a decision before marriage to the contrary by either spouse invalidates it.)  Finally, good and solid vision sees the couple as always on Christian mission.  Marriage is not simply a question of establishing a relationship and closing the doors of a home behind it.  Rather, it is a public parable of love, having the intention of influencing the world around it.  The consequences of not sharing and holding to a good and solid vision are serious.  Without the vision, married life can quickly lose its sense.  Lacking the vision can open the door to difficulties and deviations that are eventually destructive not only to couple and family, but also to Church and society.

The Sunday Eucharist celebrates the lasting and good marriage between God and humanity, forged by the death and resurrection of Christ.  It is also the Table that makes available vision and power to stay married.

Because of continuing interest in the meditations Parable and Conscience I will be publishing again each day's reflection, beginning today.  Thank you for reading me.

I hope to  also publish new material with regularity as well.

First Day

Today is the first day of my retirement--and the first day of the rest of my life, as they say.  I am deeply grateful to God for the long and energetic life of activity for the Order and Church that I have had.  I hope now for as many good years "in the sunset" as God will give me.

In the Phoenix newspaper this morning, there was a quote from British author L.P. Hartley (1895-1972):  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”  That represents one of my great challenges now.  With my retirement, I leave a place I will not go back to again.  From now on, things will be done differently there by those who have succeeded me.  In some sense, it is now a foreign country to me.  I love it none the less. But I also will be doing things differently in my new life-space.  Because I spent a lot of time preparing to cross the retirement frontier, the place where I now find myself already feels like home.  My regrets are few as I glance back, my expectations high as I go forward.  To those who helped me decide and "pack" I am also very grateful.


All my life I have been exploring, in God, the "meaning of me."  I think it will become even clearer now.  I hope you will see that for yourself to in the daily blogging that I will resume.

I am retiring.

On July 1, I will be officially retired.  Coming to that decision has been a great adventure.  I turn 70 on May 17 and the Crosiers offer the option of retirement at that age.  I happily decided to take it.  I'd like to share in the next days what retirement means to me.

When I was very young, still a deacon, a layman who experienced my ministry said to me one day, "You are someone who lights fires and leaves them burning."  It was a prophetic statement, really, because that has characterized my whole life as a Crosier religious and priest.  I have been a creative innovator, lighting fires, and at the same time someone able to "institutionalize" a lot of my inspiration in programs that continue, leaving fires burning.

Between the lighting of fires and leaving them, though, there has been another activity that has absorbed me.  I have spent a great deal of my time, energy and talent over the years tending those fires.  I see retirement as no longer feeling responsible to do that.  That I hand over now to others.  There is freedom in this--freedom from and freedom for.

I intend to keep lighting fires and, hopefully, leave them burning.  But the hard work of tending them will no longer be my task.  I look forward to the new space of retirement in my life.

Parabole and Conscience completed.

I am happy that the material of my blog over the last year is now completed.  It is a translation of a work I wrote in French while working in the Congo.  The material has already been translated into Portuguese.

Thank you for your interest in RegularCanonFire.  I hope to continue to post interesting and inspiring reflections.