The Disappearance

On election night I was struck by the difference in the makeup of the Republican and Democratic crowds at their election headquarters. The Dems were all kinds of colors and ethnicities.  The Republicans were pretty much white people.  The Republicans are slowly running out of white people.  Obama has not had a very good four years but he won.  He figured out the demographics and how to reach non-white people and get them to the poles.  The white republicans basically talk to other white people.  They don't seem to be having very many white babies to replace themselves.  Now the Republicans won't go away.  They will figure it out down the road.

What it reminds me of is my church.  Many parishes are attended by white people, old white people, by and large.  There are a few places like Houston that are still packing them in.  But who will replace these old white people?  Probably, the Hispanic community will replace them.  To whom are the bishops talking?   Few speak Spanish.  When they do, they talk in rules and orthodox belief.  This is not much of a connect.  Obama probably got a lot of Catholic votes because he appealed to what many Catholics felt was important to them.  The bishops speak about what is important to the Vatican.  The Catholic church won't go away, but it will change.  It is run by the Holy Spirit.

The Safety of Mediocrity

Clear Answers

Why do so many Catholics seem to gravitate toward and feel so comfortable with a Church that has clear and certain answers?  What is this love of unchanging sameness and certainty?  I think that old people like it because they fear death and young people like it because they fear life.  Death is about the unknown, the unexperienced, and it can seem scary.  Having clear answers and certainty about the other side of death, the God who awaits us, gives the elderly some solace.  To enter into the silence and solitude of the unknown in contemplation is not much solace for these people.

The young fear life, full of relationships, love that can be crushed, jobs that can be lost.  Life for these people is so full of uncertainty.  Answers give them certainty and set boundaries about who is right and wrong.  The young want a secure place in an insecure world.  Somehow, catechism truth will let them sleep better at night.  But truth is not a thing.  It is a relationship.  Did not Pilate ask Jesus, "What is Truth?"  The answer was Silence.  You want truth?  Enter into silence and solitude before you pick up that theology book.

Star-Gazing

In a Rilke poem, "The Buddha in Glory," he says that there are a billion stars spinning in the night.  It is awesome on a clear night.  I am captivated by the night sky when I get outside the city lights.  Rilke reminds me in the same poem that there is a presence in me that will outlive all those stars.  Awesome!  So why do I pay so little attention to the awesome within, and focus so much on the temporary around me?  Humm.  Misguided priorities, you think?  How about your priorities?

Love The Imperfection

Why is it that I do not love my neighbor as myself?  Well, my neighbor and I are not perfect enough for me.  I get upset with myself for not doing better, being better, accomplishing more, getting holier.  I accuse myself for all my faults, and then just spend energy trying to get perfect.  My neighbor is full of faults too.  I recognize their faults, and don't care much for my neighbor.   I am not comfortable loving imperfection. Maybe this is why Jesus said to love my neighbor as myself.  He knows the human condition.  If we don't accept ourselves with our faults, love ourselves with our imperfections, short-comings and foibles, we won't love our neighbor.  Resentment never made anyone better.  How to escape this conundrum?  Maybe this is why God became human, to show me how to love imperfect people.  He did choose a motley group as his inner circle did he not?  Love the human, not the fantasy perfect.  No fantasy ever picked up a cross.

Standard Time

One night a year I need to remember to turn my clock back one hour.  I write notes to myself and put them around my room.  Why?  Because I have many gods upon which I focus my attention.  I have my computer god, my exercise god, my shopping god, my projects god, and probably some others.  So my focus is spread around.  There is really no focus in some sense.  Thus, the notes remind me to turn my clock back one hour each fall.  I do this because if I forget, the next day will be a mess.

Jesus says the most important focus of my life should be to love the One God with all that I have and to love my neighbor as myself.  Many days, I forget this.  And the next day starts out a mess.  See, I have more than one god.  I get too busy to pray, to love, be kind to others who have faults just like me.  Maybe I need to write notes around my room reminding me to keep the one commandment that Jesus said is above all others.  But even the notes would not eliminate all the gods in my life.  How many gods do you have?

Petals

As in a Wisdom book, Sirach, the soul is like a flower.  Prayer is the opening of the petals, to praise God with sweet perfume, and then to receive nourishment from God so that the soul might blossom into all its beauty.  When we skip prayer, meditation, quiet time with God, we stay closed up.  We turn in upon ourselves, like a tight-fisted person.  We disconnect from the world around us.  I have found it true for me, that when I skip prayer, I am on the road to ego-centeredness, but I fool myself by calling it being busy doing stuff, even helping others.  I only know that I have my priorities wrong at the end of the day when I feel so dry, empty and dull.  Love energizes!  Open your petals first.  Then be of service.  The soul is always a flower.  Water it with prayer.  Why become a dried up "doer" of tasks?