Dear POP folks,

Twice each year, the bishops of the United States meet to pray and to confer in their role as our shepherds, our servant-leaders.

At this past November’s plenary session, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, gave his first “state of the Church” address to his brothers.  During his remarks, he quoted one of the great Christian writers of our generation:

      “As Father Ronald Rolheiser wonders, we may be living in a post-ecclesial era, as people seem to prefer…

a King, but not the kingdom, a shepherd with no flock, to believe without belonging, a spiritual family with God as my father,

   as long as I’m the only child, ‘spirituality’ without religion, faith without the faithful, Christ without His Church.”

The term, “post-ecclesial”, translates roughly as “after the Church”, or, more accurately, as “the time after the called-out community”.  This should not come as a surprise to any student of Western, specifically American, culture.

In the past 200 years, there has been a shift away from the Biblical emphasis on the community of faith as God’s instrument for salvation.  It has been replaced with a sort of “Bibliolotry” that enshrines the Bible as the only source of God’s Word and individual interpretation as the sole arbiter of the meaning of that Word.

In effect, more and more well-intentioned Christians have reduced the faith to the individual practice of prayer and reading the Bible.  All that is needed is the Book and a good heart.

This has “opened wide the doors” to a phenomenon that early Christians would not recognize if they came back from their graves to visit us today.  It is the stay at home Christian who prays, reads the Bible and claims to be living the Christian life.  This Lone Ranger approach to the faith is further enhanced by the availability of religious programming (some of it quite good!), televised worship, and electronic giving to assist the needy in third-world countries and following natural disasters.  There is even an abundance of uplifting Christian music on the radio, You Tube and on thousands of CDs, iPods or MP3 players.

In effect, you can order, subscribe or tune in to everything you need to make your own solo faith journey.  In the last and greatest of challenges, the individual can create a DVD of himself, supplemented with graphics, dubbings and renderings of art, music and photography, all to be played as his do-it-yourself funeral.  Apparently, it no longer takes God’s involvement to proclaim that “all things are possible” (Mark 9:23).

Interestingly, however, if the stay at home Christian actually does read the Bible  and listens to the Voice of God there, he will become increasingly more challenged and uncomfortable with doing faith on his own.

Jesus speaks:

-          Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”  The presence of Jesus is attracted to the gathering of his people.

-          Matthew 18:19:  “If two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.”  There is a unique power to praying with others.

-          Matthew 18:12-14:  “If someone has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray?  And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices…”  God wants his flock together, not scattered.   This isn’t just his hope, but it is a source of joy for God when the Lone Ranger sheep is joined again to the community.

-          Acts 2:1:  “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.”   As the very first Christians experienced uncertainty, anxiety, and hope, they gathered together (as opposed to fleeing to save their individual skins).  Only when they had come together in community did the Holy Spirit in all his fullness come upon them.

-          Acts 2:46 :  “Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes.”  The early Christians gathered for prayer in the temple every day and then adjourned to their homes for the Eucharist (the Breaking of the Bread).   This was in response to Jesus’ direct command to  “Do this in remembrance of me” (Acts 11:24, 25).

There are many other Scriptures as well as teachings from the early Fathers of the Church and the current Catechism of the Catholic Church that describe our identity as persons-in-community, not simply individuals of faith.

It bears repeating: Jesus never told his disciples to go home and remember what he said.  He called them to shared life, to community, and to “encourage one another and build one another up…”  (I Thessalonians 5:11).

We, as a Prince of Peace community, are called to gather and to support and nourish one another in our faith in Jesus Christ.  Our renewed worship space is set aside as a holy dwelling for God and a great room for us to become faith-full individuals in a faith-filled community.  We offer the sacrifice, we celebrate the sacraments, we speak the prayers, we reverence and learn from the images, and we are moved and uplifted by the sound of voice and instruments and song.  It is a place for God to dwell among his people.

If you are tempted to make the journey alone with only the Bible as your companion, pause and open the book.  Read it.  It will tell you to get to church. Your brothers and sisters are waiting for you there.

Father John

Dear POP flock,

We have, these past seven months, been challenged and gifted.

The challenges have centered around the shift from a stable weekend worship space to dual locations with 13 liturgies.  Our wonderful volunteers, liturgical ministers, staff, and clergy have worked hard to serve us and make our liturgies and liturgical spaces prayer-events.

As the worshiping community, you have been supportive and affirming.   When I celebrate Eucharist in other places, I am always struck by what a great gift we have here at Prince of Peace as we continue to grow as a more attentive, prayerful worshiping community.  Thank you!

These past few months have brought us many wonderful homilies, both from the gifted visiting priests and from our own clergy.  I am saddened that not every member of the community has been able to hear and be enriched by each of these sermons,

As we move back into a single-weekend worship space, we will return to our past practice of hearing one homilist at all weekend English Masses and one at the Spanish Masses most of the time.  Christmas and holy days will probably be occasions when individual presiders preach at their respective liturgies.

During this Advent season, we are reminded that we are a people of the Word, who became flesh (John 1:1ff) and comes to us in the Scriptures and the Sacraments.  The Bible is broken open and set out for us as a great banquet by the Church in the refreshing stream of the Sunday readings and in the homilies that flow from them. The homily is to the Scripture readings what communion is to the Eucharist:  breaking, sharing, receiving.

It’s essential for us to be reminded that we do not gather to be entertained, but to worship and be nourished by our God.  The breaking open of God’s Word in the homily is a dialogue, which means there are two ends, two sides to it.

At the AMC theatre, we do our part when we pay money for the ticket and purchase popcorn.  Large.  In a tub.  With extra butter.   And a coke.    In the liturgy, homilia happens when the preacher speaks to me, and my heart or mind takes, eats and owns at least some of what he is proclaiming.

In our churches, according to the most ancient of practices, there are two tables: the altar for the Eucharist and the ambo for the Word. From both we are nourished and built up.

In one of his homilies, the great preacher and pope, St. Gregory the Great, said this to his flock:

“…frequently the preacher’s tongue is bound fast on account of his own wickedness; while on the other hand it sometimes happens that because of the people’s sins, the word of preaching is withdrawn from those who preside over the assembly.”

     Gregory goes on to lament that his many duties and responsibilities shepherding the Church often steal time and energy away from prayer and preparation for preaching.  This is certainly true today for bishops, pastors, and clergy entrusted with the care of souls.

But there is another element to his remarks:  “the people’s sins”.  These, he says, can actually cause the quality and message of preaching to be damaged and diminished.  Translating:  you know that examination of conscience and repentance at the beginning of Mass?  As we recall those sins that have distanced us from God, we should also be aware that those same sins may be having a direct impact on the quality of the homily.  Each time a bishop or priest or deacon steps up to the mic to preach, it is essential that you and I be aware that the quality of our own lives may bear directly on the quality of the homily. There are many people who make a beeline from Mass to their cars, homes or a local restaurant, anxious to discuss and criticize the preaching.  How does this compare with the number of people who pray regularly for their homilists and their message?

The Church says that homilists absolutely must pray, study, practice, improve, and do a better job at preaching.  No question.  But a homilist who preaches to a community that is praying for him, and trying to live the virtues, is a man who really “has a shot” at being his best.

Do you pray for your homilists?  Do you open your heart to receive what God has to say?   “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).

May the new environment for our worship reflect a renewal in our hearts and minds:  quality lives, faithfulness to prayer, and an unwavering commitment to pray for those who preach, that they will truly be “generous distributors of God’s manifold grace” (1 Peter 4:8-10).

Father John

Preacher and Hearer

Dear POP folks,

In a few days, the Community Center will again become a hub for social, formation, and educational activities.   As we dismantle the worship area, we will not be rebuilding the interior walls.   The elongated space will permanently extend from the exterior windows on each end of the building, giving us a great parish living room for our active and growing faith family.

The church now has a “front door”, as Dr. Fogarty reminded us at the many capital campaign receptions.   It opens onto the fountain in the fellowship plaza.  It will be no ordinary door, but the John Paul II entrance, framed by the great cry of his pontificate:  “Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!”

The interior entrance to the Main Church will be familiar.   The perspective of the space will not.  Stepping through the doors and peering over the expanded, raised, double-fountain baptismal pool, you will see the new arched marble wall of the sanctuary, mirroring the arches of the John Paul II entryway.   The altar, the ambo, the chair, and the crucifix will all be the familiar furnishings that have graced our parish sanctuary since 1994.

The baptistery forms a Circle of Life with the two new Penance Rooms (confessionals), the oil ambry and the reliquary.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the renewal, the extension of the Sacrament of Baptism;  the graces of that first great cleansing continue to flow through the ritual prayer of forgiveness.

Within the circle, flanking the doors are two arched niches set into the walls.  On the right is the ambry of the holy oils.  It contains and protects:  the Oil of Catechumens (for anointing those preparing for baptism); the Oil of the Sick (for the seriously ill seeking healing); and the Sacred Chrism (the perfumed olive oil used at baptism, confirmation, and for the ordinations of priests and bishops).  These oils are blessed by the Cardinal, gathered with the bishops and priests of the Archdiocese each year during Holy Week.  They are not only channels of grace, but also visible signs of our unity as a local Church.

On the left of the doors as you enter is a niche containing the reliquaries.  These are small containers holding pieces of bone or blood certified by the Church to have been taken from canonized saints. They remind us of those who have gone before us, and that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses:  those who have passed through the waters of baptism and gone before us into glory, and who now cheer us on and support us with their prayers (Hebrews 12:1).

This assembly of ritual places and materials speak the great message of initiation and salvation:  the waters of baptism, the oils of faith, the bodies of the saints, and the tiny chapels of forgiveness.  It is truly a Circle of Life.

As Catholic Christians, we believe that Jesus is in our midst wherever two or three gather in his Name (Matthew 18:20).   We also share the belief of our ancestors that there are places on the earth that are sacred because they are dedicated to God.  The church building can never be just an auditorium.  It is the gate of heaven and the dwelling place of the Most High God.  It is a place of rest, comfort, and remembering for us on our pilgrimage of faith.

This great building exists to praise God and to sanctify us, his people.  The Church prays in Preface II of Dedication:  Father…you give us grace upon grace to build the temple of your Spirit, creating its beauty from the holiness of our lives.

     As King David sang:  “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’” (Psalm 122:1).

Fr. John

POP’s Main Church Rededication, Nov. 22, 2011

Dear POP folks,

If we peek around the calendar this time of year, we spy a turkey or a pilgrim or even an American flag:  reminders of the coming of Thanksgiving Day.  It also is a reminder to me, as the blessed pastor of this wonderful community, to give thanks to God and to YOU for your continued support of the life and ministry of this parish.  So many of you are involved in ministries and organizations.  So many of you support the parish financially through the collection or envelopes or automatic fund transfer or checks in the mail or credit cards.  So many of you stepped up to the plate to support the building campaign for our renovated worship space.  So many of you make real the Kingdom of God as you pray daily and worship at Mass.  As God has blessed us, so we have blessed God in return.  THANK YOU!

Speaking of Thanksgiving Day, to our elementary schoolers, the stretch of time from Mother’s Day to Turkey Day feels like forever.  To our over-80 seniors, it may seem as if it passes with the speed of the roadrunner in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon.  And yet, the “time of exile” from our family worship home is almost at an end.

Last May, it seemed like we would be out of our church building forever.  And yet, even in that first month worshiping in the expanded Community Center and the Mary Chapel, people were saying, “Hey, I like this!  It’s more intimate; it feels like we’re closer to one another at Mass.”   So, yes, many will be missing the old gym and the Mary Chapel when we make our pilgrimage back into the Main Church.

As we prepare for the dedication on November 22, we are excited and hopeful, dubious and fearful, grateful and maybe even humbled.  Those of us who have labored on this huge project live daily with the question, “What if they don’t like it?”

The deeper issue, however, is whether this renewed building helps us to worship our God.  Does it create a space for feeling God’s presence?   Is it welcoming to the hurting and the unchurched?  Does it form a locus with light and color and sound that is a worthy container for birthing and dying, for the forgiveness of sins and the healing of the sick, for married love and the magnificent covenant of the Eucharist?

As we reclaim this sacred space, we also will be joining with Catholics throughout the English-speaking world in returning to a more faithful, Scriptural, reverent, even mystical translation of our prayers and worship.  As we do so, you and I have the opportunity to PAY ATTENTION to the prayers and the worship that we have come to take for granted.   Our words will be more frequently drawn from the very text of the Bible, as well as from the great prayers of our fellow Christians through the ages.

Both the space and words are opportunities to pray more deeply, to experience God more effectively.   We will draw closer to the Living God!

Brothers and sisters, let’s be blunt.  In this age of doing your own thing, of creating something new, it is not difficult for the average Christian to reduce Church to a personal invention or a group democratic decision.  From there it is just a step to the world of entertainment and market share.  This happens often unconsciously because there is no skeleton, no framework upon which to build.  This trend might be compared to groups of people deciding on their own what it is to be Americans, without consulting the constitution or U.S. history.

The Bible and 2,000 years of wrestling with God’s Word and the challenges of the Christian life create a foundation and an infrastructure for our lives and worship.  This is why we celebrate Eucharist, avoid polygamy, believe in the forgiveness of sins, and rejoice in the symbol of the Cross.  We must always begin with Jesus as Founder of the Church and walk hand-in-hand with our brothers and sisters who have prayed and struggled and believed over these 20 centuries.

The symbols in our renewed worship space, the fresh translation of the words of our prayers, and the very fact that we come together to hear the Word and break the Bread have long, long, long roots, nourished by the blood of martyrs and planted in the person of Jesus Christ, the Christ of 30 A.D. and 1000 A.D. and 1750 A.D. and 2000 A.D.

If you and I approach God, even in a new space with new words and new music and new colors, expecting to be entertained or transported, we are eventually going to be disappointed.   If we come willing to look and smell and hear and taste and reach out to the God who hungers to embrace us, then Covenant will begin to happen.

As we prepare to walk back into the holy space that is ours, let us enter into the radical commitment of daily prayer.  And let us be prepared to open our hearts and lives to the God who awaits us in his temple.   He can, he will, and he does do great things in the midst of his people, in the temple of his glory, on the holy ground on which we stand.

Some months ago, I was startled by the words of Genesis 28.  They spoke to me and I pray they speak to you the dream of our renewed church building and our renewed worship:

“When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’  He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’”

Father John

Dear POP folks,

     A couple years back, the parish staff and Pastoral Council crafted a mission statement for our community.  It reads as follows:

“We, as a Catholic faith community, answer God’s call to live out the Gospel through Sacramental worship, formation, evangelization and serving those in need.”

As a foundation for the statement of our mission, those who work with leadership and staff formation advised me last year that I should offer a vision statement for the direction of the parish. Borrowing heavily from the first document of the Second Vatican Council, I offered this to the staff and to you as our vision:

“Full, conscious, and active participation in the life of the Catholic Church.” 

     At the very least, these two statements call each of us to a life that includes:

• Daily, exclusive prayer time (even if only a few minutes)
• Daily time with the Bible (even if it is only a few verses)
• Sunday (day or vigil) worship and Holy Communion
• Ministry (some form of service) as God calls
• Financial support of my parish as God calls

This is the time of year when we issue an annual report, detailing some of the activities of the parish and reporting on the financial status of Prince of Peace over the previous year.  This year, we are striving to be better stewards of our finances and our environment and in the next few weeks, we will be offering this report on-line at www.pophouston.org.  We will let you know as soon as the online report is available. And, for those of you who would like a hard copy of report, you may contact Charles Butler at (281) 469-2686 (ext. 226) and charles@pophouston.org.

Our annual report can be viewed as a compilation of facts and photos for people who are interested in our parish.  More importantly, it is a glimpse into the activity of Jesus Christ here in our midst.  When Jesus became human and offered himself to us (John 1:1-14), it was his plan that we would continue to be his presence in the world (John 14:12).  When you or I look at the faces of the members of this community at Sunday Mass or the Thanksgiving food distribution, Bible study or home visitations, we see the face of Jesus…that is, if we look with faith.

Faith also tells us that it is only because of our prayers that Jesus is alive and active here.  Those prayers are spoken to God, but they also are acted out in service/ministry and supported by our financial offerings.  We are not funding and getting active in an institution or a movement, we are allowing Jesus Christ to make himself present in the world through us.  On behalf of this faith community and the God whom we serve, I offer heartfelt thanks to everyone who has prayed, donated or worked to build the Kingdom of God here at POP.

As you read the annual report (or even if you decide to skip it), please take a few moments to review that list of five faith-actions detailed above.  Your personal conversion of heart and the ongoing life and effectiveness of Prince of Peace depend on your accepting and then sharing Jesus Christ in these five ways.  No one substitutes for any other.  These can be compared to five central ingredients to a successful marriage:

• Communication
• Listening
• Intimacy
• Actively serving the other in the home
• Sharing financial blessings for the good of the family

As the year turns yet again with the coming of September, examine your life and see if you have these five active elements of a healthy God-relationship in your daily/weekly life.  If not, then it’s time to be reconciled to God!  Turn back to him (see II Corinthians 5:18-21) with your whole heart. Pray, receive, give.

This is the reason that Prince of Peace exists.  Come to God.  Let us help.

Father John

Dear POP folks,

If you’ve been to the beach this summer, you’ve probably been reminded of the Bible; specifically the book of Genesis where Adam and Eve are running around first without clothing, then clad only in a few leaves.  There’s also a narrative in there about temptation and the first sin, which launched Original Sin.  In Genesis 3, this event is described complete with the appearance of the evil serpent, the enticing fruit, and the first fatal exercise of human freedom.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes this event for us:   “Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command. This is what man’s first sin consisted of.  All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness.  In that sin, man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good.” (nn. 397-398)

The sin of Eve, and then that of Adam, were two tragic events in human history.  They are the representation of that first immoral choice that humankind made.  In this, it was not only an episode, but an act of abandoning true freedom, human dignity, and the right relationship humans were created to have with God.

This new, twisted, dark non-relationship has been labeled Original Sin.  It is the state into which we are all born, because our birthright of divine relationship with God was thrown away by the first sinners.   We are born into spiritual and moral poverty.

St. Paul describes this:  “Through one person, sin entered the world and through sin, death and thus death came to all inasmuch as all sinned…Through one transgression, condemnation came upon all…”   (Romans 5:12, 19)

“Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that the overwhelming misery which oppresses men and their inclination toward evil and death cannot be understood apart from their connection with Adam’s sin and the fact that he has transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the ‘death of the soul’.” (Catechism n. 403)

Christians are freed from this sin in baptism.  However, the consequences of Adam’s sin, its results, continue to plague the world.  You and I have been set free from slavery to sin.  In our vacillating human weakness, we sometimes accept grace and conquer it.  At other times, we yield to the darkness and freely choose to sin.

In a recent interview with Pope Benedict, a reporter asked him about the reputation the Vatican has for intrigue, ambition, and internal conflict.  Without a pause, he replied that everyone who works at the Vatican is acutely aware of the effects of Original Sin.  Every human being struggles with it and most of us have given in, whether frequently or occasionally.

We all need heroes: examples we can look up to and aspire to imitate.  If we’re serious about the moral life, about relationship with God, we are hungry for spiritual heroes as well.  Catholics justifiably enjoy reading, learning about, and retelling the lives of the great saints—heroes.  Holy heroes.  But anyone who delves deeply into the lives of the holy ones eventually finds sin, the presence of evil.   This is similar to the activities of builders and explorers.   When they dig long enough in the earth, they eventually find rock.  It’s everywhere.

The saints, and you and I, struggle with the universal presence of evil and darkness.  Whenever we expect to find a person or a place that is totally free of the taint of Original Sin, we are eventually disappointed.  Every day, people leave the Church because they have been disappointed or shocked to find fallible human beings running the show.  Hopefully, the fallible human beings are filled with the Holy Spirit and are at least attempting to follow his lead and to rely on his strength.  But there will always be the effects of Original Sin.   Even if you were to find a person or a church that was free of the taint of evil, you would still encounter darkness because you brought it in yourself.

Thanks be to God who forgives sins, and thank God for the Church that is in the business of forgiving sinners.

Unfortunately, the Church is being lead and served every day by…sinners.  Some might say the inmates are running the asylum.  Others might see that the Church is filled with sinners and they will always disappoint anyone who comes there seeking holiness.  At the same time, they will never disappoint someone seeking holiness.  In the Church dwells the Spirit of God, and he will never abandon us to the ravages of Original Sin.  His job is to bring us to final victory, to bring us home to the Father.

Father John

Dear POP folks,

On July 4^th, we celebrate our nation’s independence.  A few weeks before, we celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the arrival of Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation in Galveston.  The slaves weren’t freed when President Lincoln issued his declaration:  they were freed when they found out about it.   Two distinct events….

Many people believe that freedom comes from the abolishment of restrictions or even laws.  Being really free is, as I referenced in my “From the Pastor”, what the French became when they ran naked through the streets.  Without stereotyping the French, we could reasonably presume that at some point wine was involved and that all this losing of clothing and drinking of alcohol led to all types of illicit physical interaction outside of the bond of marriage.   Let’s not be judgmental here, but let’s not be naïve either.

If we turn to the Scriptures, the Hebrew (Old) Testament speaks of freedom almost exclusively in the social context (i.e. your status is either slave or free).  Either somebody owns you or nobody owns you.

In the New Testament, Christ Jesus becomes the liberator, the one who frees people from slavery, specifically slavery to the Jewish law, to sin and to death.  Since most of us are not struggling with the Torah and death is inevitable, let’s take a peek at the great dance between sin and freedom.

When I choose sin, I become a slave of it (Romans 6:16-20).  I say to myself, “Hooray!  I’m at college now.  I’m free!” or “I’m at the beach in a strange city” or “I’m in Las Vegas where no one knows me; I’m free!”  But when I choose sin, it leads me into slavery.  Hey, this feels great.  I want to do it again…or more…or more intensely.  I move into slavery.  Check with a smoker who quits and then picks up a pack on vacation or a party-goer who gives heroin a try or a long-time married man who decides to have a fling with a younger woman.  Each is a first step into slavery.  It becomes more and more difficult to turn back, to get out.  Even if it does not reach the level of an addiction, the brain and the body get used to it. The sinner is enslaved to the sin.  And that sin leads to nowhere but death—spiritual, emotional, even physical (Romans 7:23).  “You were called for freedom, brothers and sisters.  But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.”  (Galatians 5:13).

There is no such thing as a moral choice without consequences. Our culture soothes us with talk of “victimless sins”.  This is all well and good until you wake up one morning and realize that you are hooked on that morning sin of personal pleasure, or staying in instead of participating in Sunday Mass, or picking up the phone to talk, or texting gossip and judgment.  The world says that these are little things, quiet things, personal things.  That’s the lie.

John Donne reflects:  “. . . perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.”

And so I slide easily into the slavery of sin, much as a swimmer slips gently beneath the warm, soothing waters of an inviting ocean.  He absorbs the gentle relaxation, the feeling of healing.  He has no sense that he is no longer inserting his tired body into the salt water; rather, the water begins to hold him fast.  The people on shore shout warnings and see the drowning man, the dying man, but he is oblivious to the reality that he is now a slave of the elements he thought were liberating him.  Sin always leads to slavery and slavery to death.

“The sting of death is sin… But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:56-7)

Come to Mass to worship this (or any) Sunday.  You’ll see a room filled with sinners celebrating Independence Day.

Father John

Dear POP folks,

Some of our founding families may find this difficult to believe, but June 29, 1971, is the 40^th anniversary of the founding of our parish.

We are not pulling out all the stops to celebrate this special day with cake and cookouts, fireworks and parades, visiting bishops, and choirs on skateboards.  This whole year of 2011 is filled with anniversaries: the day Bishop Morkovsky decided to erect a parish here; the actual date of erection; the day of Father Al Doga’s appointment as founding pastor; the first Mass;  the first Council;  the first liturgical ministries;  the beginning of parish organizations; the purchase of the first property.  We could go on and on.

We are celebrating all year long, principally through the expansion of both our Community Center and our church.  There are also a number of secondary changes, like the expansion of our storage facility, upgrading of prayer gardens, and shifts in the landscaping.

Our big celebration will be at the end of the year when we move back into our newly-grown church with more floor, more stained glass and a room full of pews happily back from refurbishing in the Land of Oz!

Most of this year is going to be spent facing the challenges of limited worship space outside the Main Church.  Many of us will be gone for some or part of the summer traveling, either spending time at the lake or the beach, or visiting grandchildren at other parishes.  Whether we are here for a few weekends or all of the Saturdays and Sundays between now and mid-November, there will be obstacles and challenges.

Come to think of it, we get stretched occasionally even when we are settled in an adequate church building.  A crying baby is drowning out the Mass.  The A/C is too hot/cold/windy/loud/uneven.  There is not enough parking/handicapped parking.  Cars are parked in fire zones.  The sound system is too loud/soft/full of static.  The cantor is too loud/soft/full of static.  The list goes on and on.

I am reminded of one of the biggest complainers I have ever known in my ministry (if she had been asked, she would have found something wrong with Jesus’ Resurrection).  One weekend in the gathering space, people were complaining about something (see previous paragraph), and she amazed me by saying, “Why are they complaining?  Don’t they know we have the Body and Blood of Christ?”  I was speechless.  On one hand, she was doing what she always did best—complaining, albeit about other complainers; but on the other hand, she was the voice of the Holy Spirit, reminding us of the great truth that overpowered the heart of St. Paul when he cried out, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”  (II Corinthians 9:15).

As we struggle through construction debris, parking challenges, and the uncertainty of seating in the chapel or Community Center, let us NEVER forget the great gift that we are here to celebrate.  I cannot come to worship without being aware that, in Pakistan, our fellow Catholics and other Christians are attacked as “friends of the Americans” when they are simply friends of Jesus.  The Catholic community is fleeing Iraq following bombings and murders in their churches.  Catholics in China are manipulated, persecuted, and suppressed by the communist government.  Even in the United States of America, bigots, religious zealots, and even the government and courts persecute and prosecute Catholics for living our beliefs.

Brothers and sisters, this is a year of celebration for us.  It is a year of growth and change.  It is a year of pain and maybe even uncertainty.  In the midst of this, let us allow Jesus to come into our midst and to speak to us, just as he visited his own hometown and spoke to those he loved and announced that he had come, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19).          

We have the Eucharist of the Lord, the oil of healing, the forgiveness of sins, and so much more.    “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 

Fr. John

Dear POP folks,

Since it’s May, I am reflecting more than usual on the great gift of Christian marriage, the Sacrament of Matrimony.  I have been privileged to be a part of the preparation or celebration of many weddings since I was ordained a deacon in May of 1973.  Perhaps the most memorable was my sister’s.  She married a native Hawaiian on the island of Kauai.  There were a thousand people at the reception, as well as the traditional pig roasted in the ground, which made an exploding sound when it was taken out to be served.  The actual ceremony was in church and was a much more sedate event.

The Bible tell us that, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16).  This means that God speaks to us in his Word and that what he tells us helps us to make course-corrections in our lives and our attitudes.

Elsewhere in the New Testament, St. Paul writes to the Ephesians and their neighboring Christian communities about the very nature of Church. Bear in mind that Paul’s personal experience is that of a bachelor, intensively trained in the Old Testament concept of wives as possessions.  He also has encountered the risen Christ personally and been taught by the Lord himself that the Church is his very body (Acts 9:1-5).  Under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, Paul says to the Ephesians, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).

This teaching enmeshes the Church in the sacrament of marriage, because it is to healthy, faithful, sacramental marriages that the Church looks to see a picture of her own relationship with Christ Jesus.   He is our Spouse, and he loves us as Church and gives himself for us, just as a husband lays down his life for his own wife.  This means that the Church is irrevocably and undeniably “in the marriage business.”  Not surprisingly, scientific studies and surveys affirm a higher level of happiness and a greater degree of faithfulness and endurance (even till death) among couples whose lives and relationships are founded in Sunday worship, personal and family prayer, and the practice of the faith (living Church) at home.

It may seem obvious, but is not to many, that a marriage in Jesus Christ should begin in the midst of the Christian community and take place in our faith family’s “living room”, the parish church or chapel.   The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, “Since marriage establishes the couple in a public state of life in the Church, it is fitting that its celebration be public, in the framework of a liturgical celebration, before the priest (or a witness authorized by the Church), the witnesses, and the assembly of the faithful.” (n.1663).

Christian marriage is too important to ever become the private possession of any individual or couple.  The honeymoon is personal, private, and totally within the discretion of the couple, at least in our culture.   The wedding, however, is a public event and a sacrament of the Church, an action of Jesus Christ in the midst of the faith community.  Destination weddings, beach ceremonies, hilltop rituals, exchanging vows at sea, renting a chapel in Las Vegas, skydiving, scuba diving, saying “I do” on horseback…  these may be unique and even entertaining, but they do not reflect the great gift of Jesus embracing the Church that is mirrored in the sacrament of marriage.

For a bride or groom to claim, “Well, it’s MY wedding”, is really a falsehood.  For Christians, it is an action of the whole community of the Church. It is alive, real, and significant.  What if a pregnant mother, coming to full term, were to say, “Well, it’s MY baby and I’ll bring her into the world any way I choose.  If I want to give birth while skydiving or on a beach or in a casino in Nevada, then it’s my right.”   The state would step in at some point to prevent this bizarre birth event because it involves someone else, i.e. the baby, not to mention the dad and the grandparents.  For us as Catholics, the marriage event involves someone else:  All of us!

If you are planning to marry, the place to start is with your parish church.  If there are special circumstances (e.g. the other party is of the Jewish faith, a dying parent is homebound, etc.), then special arrangements may be made to celebrate the wedding outside of a sacred place.  If a Catholic is marrying a Protestant, permission can be granted for the wedding to take place in the non-Catholic party’s church.   And if someone was married outside the Catholic Church, then he or she should seek to have the marriage blessed in and by the Church.  This recognizes the importance of the role of the married persons as reflecting the Christ-and-Church relationship.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there about weddings and the sacrament of marriage.  Don’t presume anything, except that your impending nuptials are important to your Church and to Christ Jesus.  That is the greatest wedding picture of all.

Father John

Dear POP folks,

The journey of Lent this year includes the great stories from John’s Gospel, especially the healing of the blind man.  We are told that this narrative was specifically put in writing for the formation of the catechumens preparing for baptism.  It illustrates a powerful element of the Christ-event: illumination, vision, sight.

As I reflect on the Gospel story of the man born blind, I am reminded of a subtle, yet powerful, symbol in the 2004 movie, “The Passion of the Christ.”

In the film, as Jesus is beaten and physically abused, one of his eyes becomes swollen shut. It remains closed throughout his suffering, his death, and his burial.  In the Resurrection scene, his eye is healed, open, and alive.  In that moment, more powerfully than at any time in his life on earth, he can see!

We hear a foretaste of this in every Gospel story in which a blind person receives the gift of sight.  Whether the words occur explicitly in the Gospel or not, we can hear the one who has been healed shout, “I can see!   I can see!”

In the very first chapter of the book of Genesis, when the Father is creating all things and therefore defining his relationship with us, we read that, “God looked at everything he had made and he found it very good” (Gn 1:31).

This attentiveness to us is underscored by Jesus in Luke’s Gospel.  He tells us that nothing can be concealed; even a tiny sparrow worth a few cents or grass growing in a field cannot escape his care (Luke 12:22-34).

God defines himself as “The One Who Looks Over All”.  He sees with his heart…like a mother (Isaiah 49:15).  Our Creator is constantly aware of each of us, not in the sense of a security guard or patrolman, but like a mother holding her newborn for the first time.

One of the ways we remember “God the Watcher” is through the popular, Ojo de Dios, a common decoration in the western hemisphere. The “ojo” (literally “eye of God”) is a series of concentric squares, resting on a point.  Each point or side of square represents one of the four directions:  the whole square signifies all the directions or, literally, “everything.”  God watches over all things.   Nothing escapes his notice.   No one escapes his care.  

In our Main Church, the figure of the square on its point is repeatedly presented, especially in the stained-glass windows.  These are not simply geometric designs or combinations of colors.  They are holy images of the eye of God who watches constantly over us.  They are combined with the circle, which signifies the unending, the eternal. Does this sound familiar?  Our Father’s eternal love is made visible on the crucifix.  Our Father’s eternal presence is alive and real in the tabernacle.  Even if you look away from the altar or the Reservation Chapel, the message of God looking, watching, caring is repeated again, and again, and again throughout our worship space.

And, lest we forget God’s eternal, watchful, caring presence, the logo of our parish enshrines the square and the circle, joined with the cross, the sign of victory.

God watches over and cares for you and me in countless ways at each moment of our journey from birth to resurrection.  Sometimes he is vibrant, vivid, and inescapable.  At others, he is gentle, restful, and quiet.

When you stop to pray in church, don’t miss the message of the square windows.  Each speaks of the Lord in different colors and hues.  All of them remind us that his “ojo”, his eye, is open, alert, loving, and fixed on you for all eternity.

Father John