A Poem from my past, "Sailing Nowhere"

SAILING NOWHERE

I was placed in my boat of reed,

And placed in a river run smoothed.

I drifted past Moses’ landing place,

Nestled amongst the rushes,

Past Peter’s boat and fishing nets,

Past reformed basilicas and black minarets,

And factories of manufactured creeds and needs.

All, whose only purpose is to clean the streets,

Tattoo feet, and recycle old shoes and dirt.

I sailed, past them all,

Into the unknown of the ocean.

I wrote this poem back in 1971, during my sophomore year at the College of St Thomas. As you can tell from the poem, I was questioning everything.  It was at a time when, as a society we discovered that all the authorities we trusted had duped us. The government fired on and killed protesters at Kent State University, Nixon ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia, and free speech was gradually being more and more suppressed. Trust in anything institutional became a very rare commodity. As it can be noted in the poem, this distrust included all institutions, even religious institutions.

In Fowler's study of faith development, there comes a time when the myths in which one believes, begin to be questioned. This questioning begins around the age of 12, when a person begins to think abstractly. It intensifies around the age of 18 years as one breaks free from home and encounters more and more of the world. "Sacred cows make the best hamburger," Mark Twain once noted, and all sacred cows are questioned unconditionally and examined. Fowler also notes that there does come a time in a person's life when he or she will return to a former system of belief. The big difference is that the person doesn't believe because he or she is forced or told to do so from outside authority. Quite the contrary, the person now believes only because he or she accepts the belief on his or her own terms. It is important that a person must own the belief as his or her own. 

It was no different for me. Though I did not accept that which I was taught, I continued to go through the motions. I did not skip Mass on Sunday, and I continued to follow the rules, though I was not sure that it was not just another fairy tale. Little by little, I began to reconstruct my faith. I learned to separate faith and belief from what can be at times a very human, sinful institution of the Church. The history of the Church is not the "perfect society" which I was taught when I was young, but fraught with deception, avarice and greed, murder, and all other sins connected to human behavior. As an institution, the Church is in need of conversion just as much as I. While I no longer placed my faith in a very human institution, which was bound to disappoint, I placed all of my faith in Jesus. My study of Church history showed that Jesus never has abandoned the Church, but raises new leaders to replace the weak, and inspires others, most often the least of people, to heroic heights. Long should have the Church fallen, but never has. The other thing I discovered was Vatican II and a new vision for the People of God.

The cynicism of that time in my life did reveal one truth. When one has no belief in anything, it is a journey to nowhere. The Beatle's expressed this in the song, "Nowhere Man."

"He's a real nowhere man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man,the world is at your command!

 He's as blind as he can be,
Just sees what he wants to see,
Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man, don't worry,
Take your time, don't hurry,
Leave it all till somebody else
lends you a hand!

Doesn't have a point of view,
Knows not where he's going to,
Isn't he a bit like you and me?

Nowhere Man please listen,
you don't know what you're missing
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command!

He's a real Nowhere Man,
Sitting in his Nowhere Land,
Making all his nowhere plans
for nobody."

We are encountering a time in the life of our local Church where people are as disillusioned as I was back in 1971. Folks have lost trust in the institutional Church in which they were raised. They feel betrayed and are outraged, ready to jettison everything. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is that their trust has been misplaced. As us baby boomers have found, human insitutions are bound to disappoint. It is only in Jesus that one can place full trust. Jesus is the center of all our belief.

 

Bulletin article for December 8, 2013, "The Advent Paradigm"

THE PARADIGM OF VIRTUE

 



The word “paradigm” (pare a dime), describes an existing structure or a model. There are scientific paradigms, political paradigms, philosophical paradigms, and religious paradigms.  For example, the paradigm of American democracy is the office of the President and Vice President, the Senate, the House of Representatives, all who are elected officials. There are checks and balances built into the government with power distributed over the executive, legislative, and Judicial branches. When a paradigm is proven false or is no longer valid, a major shift occurs and a new structure or understanding is created. Our scriptures tell about major paradigm shifts. Isaiah prophesizes that in the future when this shift occurs, God’s chosen one will be filled with wisdom and understanding, justice and faithfulness, his weapons are his words which will silence and defeat the worst of his foes. The natural world will be turned upside/down, with lions, bears, wolves, leopards, and cobras living in peace with kids, lambs, cows, and children. In the Gospel, John the Baptist warns the Jewish religious authorities that their religious paradigm is about to be radically changed. In their arrogance, they believe that only the Jews are God’s chosen ones. Because of their hardness of heart, God is creating a new paradigm of “chosen” that is inclusive of all people, including those who are not Jewish. In Paul’s letter to the Romans he writes that the paradigm shift, that John the Baptist warned would occur, has happened. All people regardless of religion, culture or nationality are now united in harmony and peace as God’s children through the power of Jesus Christ. Paradigm shifts occur in our lives, too. Leaving the single life to marry is a major paradigm shift. When children are born another major shift occurs. A change in job or occupation creates a paradigm shift. A serious illness, an accident or injury can bring about a paradigm shift in our lives. Divorce, or the death of someone we love is a major paradigm shift in our lives. The scriptures tell us that as God has accompanied humanity through the major paradigm shifts of the past, so God will continue to be with us in our present and future paradigm shifts. How has God been present during these shifts in our lives? Are we aware of God’s presence during these times? Have we thanked God for supporting us during these major changes?



What happened to Advent? Did we skip it this season?

 

ADVENT IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS …

Take a look at the picture above. The first time I saw this on Facebook, I had to look twice … then I read the caption and had a good laugh. What I thought I saw was what the comedian Pauly Shore called “cheek chillers,” in a movie (He was wearing cowboy chaps). Then I looked again and saw that the woman is carrying  a beige colored neck pillow. Things aren't always what they seem to be.

I think that it is important that we look at Advent just as carefully. Just as there is a right way and a wrong way to carry a beige colored neck pillow, there is a right way to prepare for Christmas and a wrong way to prepare for Christmas. Back during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, President Roosevelt declared that the time from the Friday following Thanksgiving Day (what we now call “Black Friday”) to Christmas Day would be called the “Christmas Season.” He did this so that people would go out and buy things, thus stimulating the economy. This economic move was successful and gradually the American economy recovered. The downside to this was that from that moment on, American society has confused the time of Advent with Christmas. Religiously, this time is far from being Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation. We are really about preparing for the second coming of Jesus, and, while we do this we remember the first coming of Christmas. In our society, however, Advent has become a time of celebrating Christmas long before it happens. We have Christmas parties galore. We exchange gifts long before Christmas Day. Our celebrations are so grand that when Christmas Day occurs it becomes anti-climatic and ho-hum. Christmas Day becomes a let down. We have put our Christmas cart before the horse, to adapt an old adage.

When my wife, Ruthie, was growing up with her family on the farm, all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree were put up on Christmas Eve. While the decorations were going up, Ruthie’s mom was busy baking all the Christmas cookies and other wonderful treats for Christmas. Christmas began for Ruthie’s family on Christmas Eve. In my family, which contrastingly was very urban from Ruthie's rural setting, we set up the Christmas tree on the 1^st Sunday of Advent, however, to emphasize that we were preparing for the birth of Jesus, there was an empty crèche that held a place of honor underneath the tree. The figures of Mary, Jesus and Joseph gradually traveled from table to table, throughout the house, to the fireplace mantle and so on until Christmas Eve night, when the holy family figurines were finally placed inside the crèche. While my brother, sister and I slept Christmas Eve night, it was then that the presents were placed underneath the tree for us to find on Christmas morning. For both of our families, Christmas did not begin until after the first Mass on Christmas. Then we "kept" and celebrated Christmas until the Baptism of the Lord.

I don't mean to sound like a Scrooge about Christmas. There is nothing wrong about putting up Christmas decorations and bedecking the house in lights. What I am encouraging is that we "keep" Advent as a time of preparation for Christmas, so that when Christmas Day comes, we can then "keep" Christmas. The Christmas Carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sings about 12 days of partying following Christmas.  I think that is a great idea, and far better than what we do in our society.