Category Archives: Peace and Justice

Are We Worshipping the Beast?

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The Book of Revelation, often mistaken for a book of predictions, is an eschatological book. It is really about the imperial Roman Empire which is persecuting the Church. The eschatological imagery allows the author to critique the Roman Empire without appearing to critique the Empire. Rome is the Beast.

In chapter 20 the author says:

Then I saw thrones; those who sat on them were entrusted with judgment.
I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded
for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God,
and who had not worshiped the beast or its image
nor had accepted its mark on their foreheads or hands.
They came to life and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Continue reading →

SOA Watch

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Jesus said to the crowd:
“They will seize and persecute you,
they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons,
and they will have you led before kings and governors
because of my name.
It will lead to your giving testimony.
Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand,
for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking
that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute.

When I read these words from Luke this morning, I immediately thought of the people who were indiscriminately arrested by the Columbus police this past weekend at the Scholl of Americas Watch at Fort Benning. These people were a part of a larger crowd that gathered once again to give testimony—the testimony of the nonviolent Jesus. Their witness was against the School of the Assassins at Fort Benning, Georgia. The School of the Americas/Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Exchange Cooperation has trained thousands of military and police from South and Central America. Graduates have been implicated in the deaths of Archbishop Romero, the Jesuit martyrs, and the Maryknoll women martyrs not to mention countless advocates for social justice who have been killed and/or disappeared.

The Gospel compels us to cry out against the injustices perpetrated by the School. As the Gospel witnesses prepared for their nonviolent protest little did they know that undercover police officers sat among them. Little did they know that some of them would be arrested and hauled into court for trying to walk on a sidewalk. Little did they know they would spend 6 hours in court and be fined heavily for bearing witness to the Gospel of Jesus. Like Peter and Paul they would be released from jail in the wee hours of the night. Others, including Fr. Louis Vitale, crossed unto the grounds of Fort Benning and will serve federal prison sentences.  Jesus was with them in their ordeal. Two Columbus based lawyers rose to their defense. Continue reading →

Christ the King, Bishops and Patriarchy

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Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 to counter nationalism and democracy. The French Revolution and the loss of the Papal State has soured the papacy on liberty and democracy. Paul rightly recognizes Jesus the Christ as the firstborn of all creation and as the Head of the Church.

Note Christ is the head, nothing about popes which is a fifth century Roman patriarchal invention. Ever since Vatican II the Curia and the popes have been trying to put the reform genie back in the bottle. We now are “blessed” with an imperial papacy shrouded in infallibility.

The picture of the stained glass window in the newly renovated cathedral in Orlando says it all. Note in the bottom left-hand corner–Bishop Wenski. Examine the picture–bishop clad in episcopal robe and miter and centurion in the foreground, more centurions, Mary the Mother of Jesus and one other Mary. Where is John? Where are the other women? Why is cowering in the background while Bishop Wenski is up front, erect and looking upon Jesus with hands folded in prayer? The arrogance of it all. Imperial papacy-imperial episcopacy.

BTW. Wenski is now the Archbishop of Miami.

Jesus Weeps over Washington and Rome

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As Jesus drew near Jerusalem,
he saw the city and wept over it, saying,
“If this day you only knew what makes for peace. . . (Lk.19:41)

We KNOW what makes for peace—Union with Jesus the Christ, Jesus is not about dogma and doctrinal statements. Jesus is about right relationships—JUSTICE. The judgment scene in Matthew 25, as Shane Claiborne reminds us, is not about doctrine. It is not about whether you believe in the Immaculate Conception. It is about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked among other things. This is what makes for peace. Our peace comes from union with Jesus in the power of the Spirit. Our peace comes from doing what Jesus did—responding to human needs and human misery with compassion. Peace is not about infallibility. It is about living in union with Jesus in the uncertainty of the dark and dank circumstances of daily life. Peace is shalom—health, wholeness, well-being. Continue reading →

St. Martin of Tours and Veterans Day

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Is it a coincidence that the feast of Martin is celebrated on Veterans Day? Martin eschewed military service to serve Jesus the Christ.
We should honor our veterans. Until Vietnam they had no choice because of the draft which often let those with resources to dodge the draft or battle zones. Today our soldiers are still fighting the rich persons’ war for oil and natural gas (Iraq and Afghanistan respectively.) They are not drafted. Some choose to enlist. For others military service with its signing bonuses is the only way up and out.
Merton says that it is the duty of every Christian to work for the abolition of war. What are we waiting for? The time is now!

The Election and the Beatitudes

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Richard Rohr has introduced me to Joanna Macy and her concept of deep time. Today, liturgically we celebrate deep time. We feel our connection with the holy ones—named and unnamed—who have gone before. We are in thin places (My Celtic forebears understood that there is a very thin place between us and those who have gone before.) where we are one in the communion of saints. Rohr says our concept of the communion of saints is our rendition of reincarnation.  We look to the past and remember. We live in the present and understand relationships and connectedness. We gaze toward the future with hope for the full coming of the Kin-dom. This is the big picture.

Thomas Merton described it in this way:

The contemplative life must provide an area, a space of liberty, of silence, in which possibilities are allowed to surface and new choices—beyond routine choice—become manifest. It should create a new experience of time, not as stopgap, stillness, but as temps vierge—virginal time—not a blank to be filled or an untouched space to be conquered and violated, but a space which can enjoy its own potentiality and hope—its own presence to itself. One’s own time. But not dominated by one’s own ego and its demands. Hence, open to others—compassionate time, rooted in the sense of common illusion and in criticism of it. (A Year with Thomas Merton, 562) Continue reading →

True Self Church

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Brothers and sisters:
I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine,
by the power at work within us,
to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Eph 3:14-21

This passage from Paul is so Merton. It is the foundation for Merton’s true self – false self. In the wake of New Age mysticism born of the Enlightenment, we have seen all kinds of schemes for finding and developing our true selves. The problem is that man-made schemes, even the non-New Age schemes of the Vatican—do not make us God-like. Continue reading →

Up to Rome

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Recently, I have been drawn to re-explore Ignatian spirituality. Using the Ignatian method of placing oneself in the biblical scene can be very beneficial. The method anchors me and keeps my restless mind from straying.

I have been taking a serious look at church renewal through the eyes of Merton who can provide with guidance as we try to preserve the gains of Vatican II. An imperial Roman church is trying with all its might and power to roll back the clock on Vatican II. The imposition of the New Missal from on high is but the latest attempt to impose uniformity where Vatican II sought unity.

I placed myself in the scene of today’s Gospel as Jesus journeys through Samaria to Jerusalem. Continue reading →

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Greed

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is worth a watch. We saw it yesterday. Today we get a second reading from Amos and his condemnation of riches. Even more powerful than the sequel to Wall Street is the story Jesus tells in today’s Gospel—the rich man and Dives at the gate. What is it that we don’t get from the prophets and the One Risen from the Dead?

Last week we heard the startling statistic that one out of every seven Americans live in poverty. While the rich fight to keep the Bush tax breaks that have cost the Treasury trillions, one out of every seven Americans languishes at the gates of the rich man’s manor. In America and around the world the income gap between the haves and have-nots is increasing at an alarming rate. Continue reading →

The New Missal

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Erecting It's Own TombstoneThe proposed new Missal for English speaking countries is a travesty. It denies the faithful the opportunity to worship in language that means something to them as they live their everyday lives. The New Missal could be the headstone over the grave of the Roman Catholic Church, Inc.

We are not Romans. We do not speak and think in Latin. For us Latin is a dead language. We are Roman Catholics who live in 21st Century America. We pray in words relevant to our cultural experience of God. Romans are wont to call God “Lord.” Americans eschew medieval class distinctions and prefer to call God “God” or “Creator.”

The institutional church has instituted these changes in the liturgy without any input from the faithful who, whether they realize it or not, do have a voice in the church. Once again feudal lords are treating us like ignorant peasants who cannot think and reason for themselves. Some church leaders are trying to convince us that these changes do not roll back Vatican II. They are telling us that we just did not understand what Vatican II was really saying. Poppycock! We seem to be going back to the pre-Vatican II distinction that the priests and bishops are the Church and that we, the laity, belong to the Church. This is replacing the fact that the faithful consists in ordained and non-ordained members–all part of the Body of Christ and members of the People of God. Some church leaders are trying to convince us that these changes do not roll back Vatican II. They are telling us that we just did not understand what Vatican II was really saying. Poppycock!  Restorationism–returning to pre-Vatican II concepts and practices is running rampant under Benedict XVI as it did under John Paul II. Continue reading →