Resist the Anti-Christ

I am sad to report that the anti-Christ John warned us about is alive and well and has is attempting to repeal Jesus’ message of Good News for us and for the least among us.

The spirit of greed is upon us
because it has elected us and commissioned us
to bring more bad tidings to the poor.
It compels us to order more incarceration for more people

and to repeal funds for giving sight to the blind.
It compels us to oppress more people for their resources

and to proclaim a year that is not acceptable to God.

But we do not despair because John assures us, “And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.”

Jesus proclaimed the message of faith:

He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Resist the anti-Christ. Proclaim Jesus’ Good News!

Catholics Come Home

Recently I have seen a spate of TV infomercials inviting Catholics to come home. If I were contacted by http://www.catholicscomehome.org/ to do an infomercial (fat chance of that happening!), I would have to refuse.

I am a 68 year-old cradle Catholic who is currently searching for an alternative model of Church. In conscience I could not invite people home to a Church that:

Denies justice to one half of its members by denying full participation in the sacramental life, including ordination, to women. This is the very same Church that over time denigrated to leadership of women and turned the first Apostle of the resurrection, Mary of Magdala, into a harlot for patriarchal purposes of domination and control.

Actively campaigns and disrespects the rights of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual Catholics using faulty scriptural exegesis and faulty old science to postulate that homosexuality is a preference that can be changed. The American bishops have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been used to alleviate human misery to create human misery for gay Catholics.

Whose leadership conspired to cover up the sexual abuse of minors by the clergy.

Claims its Roman patriarchal absolutist form of governance was “founded” by Jesus the Christ when Jesus Movement started egalitarian groups of people living in communio in the Risen Christ through the power of the Spirit. Many of these communities were led by women for the first millennium.

Condemned the war in Iraq as an unjust preemptive war in violation of Church teaching and turned around and said that Catholic men and women could fight in the war.

I am afraid my infomercial pitch would be, “Find and/or start an intentional inclusive Eucharistic community where men and women, gay and straight, can live in communio in the Risen Christ through the power of the Spirit.

What Did Mary Know?

Yesterday my wife forwarded an email that seems to have gone to our whole church. The numerous recipients were invited to go to the following web site: http://www.andiesisle.com/didsheknow.html There they would find a long verse accompanied by a song. This very traditional piety left something to be wanting as I read it and listened to the song. Part of the verse read:

Continue reading

Come, My Beloved

Gazelles and stags bounding across hills. Flowers blooming. Spring erupting. Life exploding. [BTW/ Isn’t it interesting that the Church offers an alternative reading in case someone thinks this sensuous poetry might be too much for us? Oh well, the Church has never liked poets an dprophets!]

Then, I peer out across the valley and the mountains from my living room. Nothing is bounding. It is cold. Clouds blocked the lunar eclipse. A dull rainy haze obscures Brasstown Bald. Anotehr rainy winter day is upon us. Continue reading

The Desert

The desert—place of renewal and turning your life around. John the Baptizer went into the desert and preached repentance. People who went to John in the desert expected to see a prophet, a messenger from God. They did not go, as The Message translation says, to see a “weekend camper” or a “sheik dressed in silk pajamas.” Continue reading

Becoming the Church We Wish to See

As the progeny of Vatican II, many of us are struggling with the attempts by the Opus Dei hierarchs to put the Vatican II reform genie back in the bottle. Conservative factions in the church are gloating over the New Missal and the “mystery” it restores to the Mass while progressives Vatican II types are chafing under yet another top-down power grab by the Pope and the Roman Curia. BTW the Curia has taken it upon itself to make numerous changes to what was approved by the American bishops. Continue reading

Come, Eat and Drink

“Hey there! All who are thirsty, come to the water! Are you penniless? Come anyway—buy and eat! Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk. Buy without money—everything’s free! Isaiah 55:1(TMSG)

Life is a banquet and we are all starving to death. We eat and drink and yet we are never satisfied. There must be more. Today’s message is that there is more. God is calling us to the banquet table. And what a banquet table it is! Continue reading

Becoming Fishers of Men

Brothers and sisters:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)

Evangelicals and many Catholics are prone to confess Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. This is good and commendable as far as it goes; however, we must remember that the proclamation of the Good News always has a socio-political dimension because Jesus came to challenge the present political order—Roman Empire—and to proclaim a new world order—the Kindom of God. The values inherent in the two realms are radically different. Continue reading

Touchdowns and Dropped Passes

Dear Stevie Johnson,

I am really sorry that you took your eyes off the ball and dropped the winning touchdown pass when you were wide open in the end zone yesterday. I know that you praise me 24/7 and I am grateful for that. But please know that I have much more important things to do—like making sure the world keeps going in spite of human frailty, selfishness and outright sins against humanity—than to be on call 24/7 on game day to make sure you catch or do not catch touchdown passes. In the broad scope of things, I do not really cares who wins the games you play to delude people from true purpose in life.

The next time you catch a touchdown pass congratulate yourself. If you drop another pass blame yourself.

Take care,

God