American Belief

A survey performed by researchers connected to Pew Forum paints a very interesting picture of American faith life. The United States can still be called a Christian country. Various Protestant Christians make up the majority of the US population at 51.3% of adults. The Catholic Church is actually the largest church in the US, since the Protestants are divided into many small groups Those who identify themselves as Catholics account for 23.9% of the US population. The religious scene also includes Mormons, Jews, and many others. Despite a notable presence in America, Jehovah's Witnesses, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims each account for less than 1% of the American population. These numbers, however, don't reflect the dynamics of the American religious scene.
One of the largest single groups in the survey was those who are Unaffiliated, including Atheists, Agnostics, and those who characterize their faith as Nothing in Particular, who together account for 12.1% of the US population. Most interestingly, 44% of those surveyed had switched from the religious tradition or their birth, going from believer to unaffiliated, or from one denomination to another, or from non-believer to a faith tradition.
This lack of deep roots and consequent flexibility opens up great possibilities for drawing in the crowds, explaining why the so-called mega churches are able to draw such enormous congregations on a Sunday morning. However, I wonder if the Catholic Church benefits much from all this pew hopping. The membership requirements are rather high, with preparation classes that can last as long as a year and the demand that Catholics attend Mass every Sunday. More intimidating, the Catholic Church's high moral demands, including opposition to extra-marital intercourse and contraceptive methods, and an outright refusal to ordain women or married men seems to keep the Church out of step with modern American society. The Catholic Church has also been hit hard in recent times with a lack of vocations to the priesthood and with several scandals. Perhaps this is why the survey noted that 1 in 10 people in the United States is a former Catholic. Some organizations have formed intending to reach former Catholics. Considering that former Catholics number upwards of 20 million people in the US, that is a large target audience.
With all this against the Catholic Church, it is practically a miracle that it remains the largest Christian Church in the US. In fact, the Catholic Church seems to be emerging as the main voice for Christianity in the US, as the major Protestant traditions like Methodist, Anglican and Lutheran Churches continue to lose members and the Protestant groups which replace them seem to lack the strength and staying power that the old ones once had.
Personally, I think it is a great blessing to be a priest in times like this. When times are good, it is easy for the Church to rely on its own strength and social position. As the challenges to the faith become greater, the Church must rely on the grace of God, and it is from God that life and joy and salvation come. We are in for a great adventure.

Homily for Feb. 24

Lent3 Living Water for Thirsty Souls
Christ meets the Samaritan woman at the well. She is spiritually thirsty, tired of trying to satisfy her thirst with material things. As she comes to believe in Christ, she discovers the Living Water that truly quenches thirst. What are we doing to bring this water to others?
(see St. Augustine's famous commentary on John)

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Birthday Cards

Thanks to the wonders of international mailing, a package came today from the Catholic school that I served this summer. Usually, people are afraid to see something with the Principal's name but I was thrilled to have a package sent in her name. I think every single child in the school wrote or colored a card for my birthday, far too many to fit into a photograph but I included a few. The package also included an assortment of birthday candy.
The cards come at a perfect time for celebration, since today I submitted my license dissertation, moving me one big step closer to being finished with my studies in June. The best part is, I don't have to defend the dissertation, it just has to be accepted!

Dominican Vocation Video

This video is made of excerpts from a Dominican vocation video from 1964. It has a very different feel from anything you would make today, and a strong contemplative mood.

Homily for Feb. 17

Lent2 - Get on the Right Road and Keep Walking
What is the right road? Am I on it? Lent is a time to pull over, ask for directions, and get on the road that heads towards Heaven. It is a hard road, a road that goes through Calvary, but our companion is the Lord. Even if the road is hard, we must keep walking.

Happy Birthday

I had a nice birthday. I got a few cards and notes, including a phone call from the parish florist. I also talked to my brother for a while on the phone and wished him a happy birthday. I ended up with not one or two, but three cakes for my birthday. There was a meeting of recently-ordained priests which I count as my birthday party because it included a nice meal and a Dairy Queen ice-cream cake. Then I had an evening program on Lent with the students at the Newman Center. They had bought cupcakes for my birthday. One of the students brought the cake you see above. I didn't get a picture quick enough :-)

A couple days later I had Mass at one of the schools here in town. That morning I talked to one of the priests and we switched Masses. It turns out that the kids had all been prepared to sing me happy birthday. They had even made the world's biggest birthday card. I hope I didn't disappoint them too much. I love the card.

Polar Plunge

I'm jumping in! Feb.23rd is the great traditional Polar Plunge. Participants raise money to help students with disabilities participate in the Special Olympics. Sounds fun, right? Well, then they chop a big hole in Lake Winnebago and we all jump in the freezing water! We have a team through the Newman Center and about 15 students plan on participating.

Want to learn more? Visit the website: http://www.specialolympicswisconsin.org/pp08/team.asp?id_t=168

And let me encourage you to donate online. The money goes to help about 10,000 children with cognitive disabilities participate in the Special Olympics. Besides, it's the only time you can tell a priest "Go jump in the lake!" and he'll say, "Thanks for your support."

Homily for Feb. 10

Lent1 Resist the Temptations to Serve Yourself

Jesus enters the desert and resists the three great temptations -- Pleasure, Power, Possessions. In Lent, we face these same temptations with Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving.We do this so that we might choose not to serve ourselves, but God alone.

Beginning of Lent

Since we have passed both Ash Wednesday and the first Friday in Lent, millions of Catholics around the world have experienced the sudden sensation of, "That's right, I can't have meat today."
Lent should be a time of penance, and we practice that with two traditional forms, fasting and abstinence. Fasting is a limit on the quantity of food we eat; abstinence is a limit on the kind or quality of that food. While it is true that other kinds of fasting and abstinence can be effective, such as abstaining from forms of entertainment or fasting from too much talking, the old ways are still very effective because they hit us where it hurts, right in the gut.

On Ash Wednesday, as I was eating vegetable soup, I started to ask myself, why abstain from meat at all?
It is because it used to be expensive, a luxury, and so it indicates poverty and simplicity?
Does it derive from a sense of guilt over killing animals?
Is it because vegetables are better for us, as many a vegetarian will claim?
Or is it for a kind of ritual purity? Mahatma Ghandi, in keeping with the religious tradition in India, followed a strict vegetarian diet, because he believed that it gave him discipline and spiritual strength.

The last answer, I think, is closest to the truth. The desert hermits in the Christian tradition followed a very strict diet. The strictest diet is vegetables, salt, water and bread. The salt, of course, is a luxury, but it is a condescension to human nature since even the freshest vegetables cooked without salt are hard to finish. Fruits and nuts are sometimes permitted in this diet.

Many monastic communities today follow a less strict died, one which includes milk, eggs, butter, cheese, and even wine or beer. However, they only eat meat on the greatest feast days. Meat, by the way, has always meant meat with blood, i.e., from warm blooded animals. Fish and shellfish were not included as meat, and this is why even today fish can be eaten on penitential Fridays.

The fundamental sense of the spiritual tradition is that a disciplined and pure body leads to a disciplined and pure mind. This disciplined body does not ingest the savory, fatty, heavy foods which seem to weigh down the stomach and the spirit. That is why we don't eat meat on Fridays.

Have things changed today? Is meat no longer what it was? No, I would say that meat hasn't changed a neither have we. That is why the discipline remains. Although most Catholics don't know this, abstaining from meat on all Fridays of the year, although no longer under pain of sin, is still the discipline of the Church.

Even beyond the meat, the insight of the ancient Church seems even more valuable today. In a land which serves junk three meals a day, no wonder people are in such a bad shape spiritually. I wonder if we should consider not only meat but all junk food off-limits during Fridays in Lent.

Fátima, Portugal

This weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Fatima, Portugal. This small town is about an hour and a half from Lisbon, in a land full of rocks and olive trees and occasional herds of sheep. No one would ever know about this town if not for an act of God, or more specifically, an act of his mother.

Our Lady appeared in 1917 to three children while they were watching their sheep, and urged them to pray for sinners and to pray for peace. This was during the First World War, which was destroying an entire generation in Europe. The connection between the lack of peace and sin was very deliberate, because in the apparition the destruction of the war was interpreted directly as a result of human sin.

Our Lady's final appearance, on October 13th, 1917, was accompanied by a miracle in which the sun seemed to spin, to turn red, and to fall towards the earth. Thousands of people saw the miracle because news of the apparitions was incontainable. Official approval of the apparition by Church authorities turned it into a major pilgrim destination.

The Chapel of the Apparitions from the front of the Basilica

looking toward the Church of the Most Holy Trinity

I was there in a cold and rainy early February. Although it was the slow season there seemed to be no lack of people who had come to pray at the Chapel of the Apparitions, to light candles at the shrine, and to visit the basilica where the three shepherds are buried. I was priviledged to be at the shrine for the Feast of the Presentation on February 2nd. The feast commemorates when Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to the temple to "redeem him," since according to the law all firstborn children and animals belonged to God. Jesus was proclamied to be "the light of revelation to the Gentiles," and so this Mass is traditionally celebrated with a procession of lighted candles (hence it is knows as Candlemas). We began from the Chapel of the Apparitions and processed with a statue of Our Lady to the new Church of the Most Holy Trinity for a Mass led by the Bishop. The rainy skies had receeded in homage and a beautiful blue sky accompanied the procession.

Saturday afternoon I spent time "in the box," in one of the confessionals near the Basilica. There seemed to be a shortage of priests who could hear confessions in langauges other than Portugese, but there was no shortage of people wanting to confess their sins. It was a blessed moment for me to enjoy the power of the priesthood to help those who are struggling, a power which has seemed dormant in my routine of post-graduate studies. In a particular way, I felt close to Mary, a mother whose heart is pierced with sorrow at the sins of her children, but is transfixed by joy at their imperfect but earnest love. It is good to be the son of such a mother.

Homily for Feb. 3rd

Blessed are You, for the Lord is with You

I didn't get the opportunity to give a homily this weekend. Our parishes are in the midst of a program called Advancing the Mission and so the pastors are preaching on Stewardship. They follow a three-part pattern: Prayer, Service, and Sharing. However, the Beatitudes are one of my favorite Gospel passages and I wanted to offer a few reflections on them.

Mat. 5:1-12a

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

St. Matthew opens the famous Sermon on the Mount with this passage. They are meant to paint the portrait of what it means to be a Christian. The greatest laws of the Old Testament were the Ten Commandments, which tell us what we kind of activities we must not do. The Beatitudes go a step further by prescribing what we must do as followers of Christ. They go beyond external actions in that they require attitudes of heart. No longer is it good enough to not kill. Now Christ invites us to be meek and merciful.

"Blessed" -- what does it mean?
We might say to a mother with several wonderful children, "You are so blessed!" Someone who is grateful for the gifts they have received will comment, "I am just thankful for my many blessings." What is the ultimate blessing? It is not a car or a house or even health. To a human being, friendship is more meaningful than all those things. Friendship gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of being important that does not depend on what we have.

The greatest, blessing, then is friendship with God. "Blessed" means, in a nut shell, that the Lord is with those who suffer. Those who have nothing, those who are troubled, are blessed because God is their friend. We know that a particular challenge can make people grow. I was recently in Biloxi with the hurricane relief effort. The people had really suffered through a lot of trials. Many had grown stronger because of them. Often we are afraid of our weaknesses, but this Gospel tells us not to worry about them. Weaknesses and difficulties are the doors God uses to enter our lives.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter if we are rich and 'successful' or poor and struggling. What really matters is that the Lord be with us. Think of the Hail Mary -- Why is Mary "Blessed among women?" Because "the Lord is with thee." Every time we pray the Haily Mary we should remember that the greatest blessing is friendship with God. You can handle anything because "The Lord is with thee."

The Lord is with thee.

The Lord is with thee.

"Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
Rejoice and be glad,
for your reward will be great in heaven."