Memorial of St. Martha

July 29th is the Church's celebration of St. Martha. From today's Liturgy of the Hours:

Saint Martha was a sister of Mary and Lazarus. When she received the Lord as a guest at Bethany, she looked after him with devoted attention. She begged the Lord to raise her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. 

Just a couple of weeks ago we heard the story of Jesus visiting Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, according to Luke. Martha the busy-bee in the kitchen providing Jesus hospitality and complaining to him that her sister wasn't helping. Jesus telling her that Mary chose the better part. And because of that story Martha sometimes gets a bad reputation. Martha is often the emblem of the problems of over-work, over-stretching, over-stressing -- of just being too busy to sit and listen. And there is a lesson there for us in that interpretation, and also a lesson in understanding the value of hospitality. But all of this is at the expense of overlooking her role in the Gospel of John.

If Luke doesn't portray her in the most flattering light, in one way, John couldn't have given her a more important role. My New Testament professor, Dan Harrington, SJ, pointed out in class once the theory that the Gospel of John has at its physical center the 11th chapter (out of 21), and that the chapters of the book correspond to each other. For example, the second chapter with the Wedding Feast at Cana corresponds to Jesus' Resurrection and appearance to the Apostles. Or the 13th chapter with the washing of the disciples feet corresponds to the washing of the blind man in the pool of Siloam in the 9th chapter. It could have been used as a storytelling device. In any case, the center is the eleventh chapter and it is about the Raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus' story is the Christian story. It is an allegory for all Christians of the Paschal Mystery of death and resurrection awaiting us all. Lazarus is all of us. And at the center of the eleventh chapter is Martha. Specifically Martha's profession of faith:

"She said to him, 'Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.'"

No one up to that point in the Gospel of John has made such a statement. Martha's belief, Martha's faith, was the first and as a result Lazarus was raised. Martha stands at the center of John's Gospel. Not Peter, not her sister Mary or any of the other Marys, not James or John. Martha.

And so we pray:

Father, your Son honored Saint Martha by coming to her home as a guest. By her prayers may we serve Christ in our brothers and sisters and be welcomed by you into heaven, our true home. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

An antidote to the education testing craze...

Finally, an education story that rings true to my experience. Thank you to my Montessori school teachers, who to this day continue to make a positive difference in my life. Take away message:

"The economists don’t pretend to know the exact causes. But it’s not hard to come up with plausible guesses. Good early education can impart skills that last a lifetime — patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. The tests that 5-year-olds take may pick up these skills, even if later multiple-choice tests do not."

Patience, discipline, manners, perseverance. All traits learned early. All traits that make more of a difference in the working world than anything measured on a multiple choice test.

 

With my ever-present coffee mug by my side...

Today's coffee mug (really travel mug) is cute. It's got pictures of Caeleb and Noah all over it. It was a Christmas present. And it's full of delicious coffee all day long. But that is no surprise to me, I grew up in the two most caffeinated cities in the country according to The Daily Beast. Thank God for the land that birthed Starbucks....

Preparing for Sunday...

This Sunday's readings are hard. There is no way around it. They are about greed and wealth. And as a society we don't do well with talking honestly about greed and wealth. We make excuses for ourselves, for our friends, for our economics. I know I do. All of the time. I am sure we can all think of ways in which we build bigger barns for ourselves. It shouldn't be hard or take more than a minute.

There is a great discussion going over at dotCommonweal started by Fr. Joe Komonchak with wonderful quotes from the Church Fathers railing against greed. There is an especially good one from my favorite, John Chrysostom. Harsh words:

Tell me, then, what is the source of your wealth? From whom did you receive it, and from whom the one who transmitted it to you? “From his father and his grandfather.” But can you go back through the many generations and show the acquisition just? It cannot be. The root and origin of it must have been injustice. Why? Because God in the beginning did not make one man rich and another poor. Nor did he later show one treasures of gold and deny the other the right of to search for it. He left the earth free to all alike. Why then, if it is common, do you have so many acres of land, while your neighbor has no portion of it?

Over at SLU's Center for Liturgy there are some great reflections and guides to the readings for those who are looking for multiple perspectives from which to tackle these thorny issues.

But for me, this week, the key is the first conversation in the Gospel.

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Often we hear that the answer is for the those who have to share with those don't. Or for a systematic restructuring of resources, or for more tithing, or more whatever so that there is more justice. But in this conversation Jesus' critique is so much more damning than that, and so much more universal. Jesus is, in effect, telling the brother to not want the inheritance. He does not believe that sharing is the answer, the answer is not wanting in the first place.

Now does this mean that Jesus turns a blind eye to those in need. Not at all. Jesus believes that all should have what they need and that we must help those in need. But he tells everyone here, don't want. That is much harder. And that applies to all of us, not just the rich.

Catholic Ethics in the World Church

Five years ago I was taking a seminar course at BC called "Aquinas' Ethics" from Jim Keenan, SJ. In it we read the entire second part of the Summa Theologiae. It was the toughest and best course I took in my Master's program.

During that semester Jim was busy organizing a global conference to take place in Padua on ethics in the church. This conference was to be the first of its , bringing scholars from everywhere on the planet together for face to face meetings and presentations on the current state of ethics and moral theology.

This past week Jim pulled off his second such conference, this time in Trent, the site of the famous Council following the Reformation. I highly suggest taking the time to read through the list of papers presented at the conference on the website www.catholicethics.com. The breadth and depth of the tradition as it is being lived out in the world today is staggering and in the truest sense catholic. I am deeply grateful to Jim and the conference planners for doing so much to move the conversation forward. You can read more about the Conference on blog posts here and here.

In the middle of potty-training...

Caeleb, my oldest at 2 1/2 years, woke up in a bad mood this morning. Probably because we have started potty-training and he now knows that the first thing he has to do when he gets out of bed is go pee. He's not a fan. Though he is so, so good at this bathroom thing -- so far. But between pooping in the pool and peeing on the couch this was a perfect week to run across this article on parenting from New York Magazine.

The articles does a wonderful job of exploring some of the many reasons for parental unhappiness: from changes in how society views childhood to changing notions of gender roles, from the trend towards having children later in life to methodological issues in how we study happiness. The money-quote for me however, came at the end of the article:

"But for many of us, purpose is happiness—particularly those of us who find moment-to-moment happiness a bit elusive to begin with. Martin Seligman, the positive-psychology pioneer who is, famously, not a natural optimist, has always taken the view that happiness is best defined in the ancient Greek sense: leading a productive, purposeful life. And the way we take stock of that life, in the end, isn’t by how much fun we had, but what we did with it. (Seligman has seven children.) 

About twenty years ago, Tom Gilovich, a psychologist at Cornell, made a striking contribution to the field of psychology, showing that people are far more apt to regret things they haven’t done than things they have. In one instance, he followed up on the men and women from the Terman study, the famous collection of high-IQ students from California who were singled out in 1921 for a life of greatness. Not one told him of regretting having children, but ten told him they regretted not having a family.

“I think this boils down to a philosophical question, rather than a psychological one,” says Gilovich. “Should you value moment-to-moment happiness more than retrospective evaluations of your life?” He says he has no answer for this, but the example he offers suggests a bias. He recalls watching TV with his children at three in the morning when they were sick. “I wouldn’t have said it was too fun at the time,” he says. “But now I look back on it and say, ‘Ah, remember the time we used to wake up and watch cartoons?’” The very things that in the moment dampen our moods can later be sources of intense gratification, nostalgia, delight."

Give the whole thing a read though, parent or not. You won't be disappointed.

The Church's Grandparents Day!

July 26th is the Memorial of Joachim and Ann, the parents of Mary.

From today's Liturgy of the Hours:

"From an ancient tradition, going back even to the second century, the parents of the Virgin Mary are known by the names of Joachim and Ann. Devotion to Saint Ann is found in the sixth century in the East, and by the tenth century it was widespread in the West. Saint Joachim was likewise honored, but at a more recent date."

While it is great to honor them as the parent's of Mary, with the focus traditionally on Mary's Immaculate Conception, I want to take another angle. That is, they are Jesus' Grandparents! Now really, how cool is that?

I can't help but wonder what they were like? In looking at my own grandparents and how special they have been in my own life I have to ponder what sort of relationship Jesus had with his? Recently, my wife and boys and I got to spend a week with my parents and my mother's parents on vacation. Seeing my sons fall asleep in the arms and laps of my parents and grandparents, and seeing the smiles on their faces each morning as they got to see Papa and Grandma and Great Grandpa and GG, is a memory that I will always treasure. Could it be that Jesus did the same? How could it not be?

And even if Jesus' grandparents died before he got to know them, the stories told at family meals must have had a profound impact on him. So to all Grandparents today, thank you.

So we pray:

God of our fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, you gave Saints Joachim and Ann the privilege of being the parents of Mary, the mother of your Incarnate Son. May their prayers help us to attain the salvation you have promised to your people. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

Feast of the Apostle James

July 25th is traditionally the Feast Day of the Apostle James.
From today's Liturgy of the Hours:

"Saint James, son of Zebedee and brother of St. John the apostle, was born at Bethsaida. He was present at most of the miracles performed by Christ and he was put to death by Herod around the year 42. He is especially honored at Compostela in Spain where a famous church is dedicated to his name."

You can learn much more about the famous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, or the Way of St. James, here, and here, and here from the Confraternity of St. James. You can learn more about the Santiago Cathedral here. Closer to home, the Seattle Cathedral is also named for St. James and you can visit this terrific parish here.

And so we pray:

St. James,
We come to you in eager pilgrimage.
Place yourself, patron of pilgrims,
at the head of our pilgrimage.
Teach us, apostle and friend of the Lord,
the way which leads to him.
-- Prayer of Pope John Paul II at Santiago de Compostela, 1989
 

In USC News...

This announcement from President-Elect Nikias made me extremely proud of being a Trojan. Nikias, following in the footsteps of President Sample, decided to do the right thing. Not the popular thing, or the safe thing, but the right thing, in bringing in Pat Haden, returning Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy, and establishing new administrative posts for Athletic Compliance that are firsts in the country.

"Our Trojan student-athletes are indeed students first and foremost; thus the USC experience must ensure that they are nourished by and beholden to the noblest values of the academy and of society. And USC's athletic program, embodying our shared values and ideals, will continue to serve as the force binding this worldwide Trojan Family." -- USC President-Elect Max Nikias

It is sad that scandal forced USC into doing the right thing, but once it did, USC decided to lead. They knew that they couldn't win by looking like whiners, but they could win by taking the charges seriously and doing what Trojans do best -- turning adversity into opportunity through creativity. Now it is up to the Trojan Family to hold the administration accountable to the road they have set before themselves. The lesson for the rest of us is that taking the high road will always serve us better in the end. Go Trojans!

Seventheenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

You can find today's readings here. Quote of the day from Luke:

He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

Question of the day: Do we actually forgive everyone in debt to us? And I'm pretty sure that Jesus meant real hard monetary debt. If we don't, can we really ask God to forgive us? I have to admit, Jesus makes praying hard when he frames it that way.

But later on, Jesus says:

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

So maybe today's prayer needs to be the antecedent, "Father, help me to forgive those in debt to me." Pray, rest, repeat. Pray, rest, repeat.

 

 

Through the Mad Men Lens....

Read Frank Rich's column today. Enough said.

Vatican Literacy Quiz

John Allen has a basic Vatican Literacy Quiz up on his Blog at National Catholic Reporter. You should take it. He says that anyone that is writing on church matters or Vatican politics should get 8 out of 10 off of the top of their head. That is exactly what I got. I missed numbers 3 and 10. Though on both of them I was able to eliminate two answers very quickly and then just guessed wrong. On the other 8 no guessing was needed. How did you do?

By the way, I agree with him about not arguing with people who don't know the difference between a "dicastery and a deacon." It is just not worth the energy. The quote from Daniel Patrick Moynihan is something I have been repeating to myself daily it seems. "Everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but nobody's entitled to their own facts." With that, Happy Sunday!

That Karl Rahner quote won't go away....

Tim Muldoon of Boston College has a great new article up at a great new site called Patheos. In it he sets out his vision for the future of the Church -- one of mystics in communion of service. It's powerful stuff. That along with this recent posting by Joseph Komonchak over at dotCommonweal of a quote from Yves Congar about the exoskeleton (he calls it a carapace) of Catholic culture crumbling to reveal who has a Christian backbone and who doesn't makes for an interesting pairing about the possible ways the Spirit may be moving in the Church today.

Mad Men

Okay... so this is seriously just a personal plug. But, it's my blog, so why not? Mad Men, Season 4, premieres this Sunday on AMC at 10pm. Watch it. Even if you haven't watched seasons one through three. Watch it. It is the best show on TV.

Getting back at this...

So, it has been way too long since I last posted anything here. Long enough in fact that I am sure that almost no one checks this blog anymore. The school year got away from me, writer's block set in, and then inertia just took over. But as I gear up for another school year here at VCU and as I constantly come across articles, stray thoughts, events and places that are worth sharing I knew that I had to start this back up. So forgive my absence and hopefully start reading again. And if you have anything that you would like to see posted here send me an email and I'll see what I can do.