My husband and I have started attending the Church of the Assumption on the other side of town in order to go with my father, who dislikes attending Mass alone. A year and a half after my mother's passing, we finally decided to move to be with him. It's been more difficult than I thought it would be; both Nick and I miss the familiar faces and warmth of the community at Sacred Heart.
That said, we return on occasion and last Sunday was one of them. Fr. Qui-Thac talked for short time at the end of the service about the election. I grabbed a pencil and envelope and took notes, knowing this would be a cause for discussion later, and it was. I am shocked at the variety of reporting - about 10 people reported the same brief statement 10 different ways. Some of these folks attended the 8:30 and I attended the 11:00, but I thought I'd put down what I heard, just as reference point.
After much prayer and reflection, Fr. Qui-Thac said he had 3 points to make:
1) we need to stop assuming another's intentions in this election. We are all pro-life, we vote accordingly but there are difficult choices to make here.
2) we need to be open to the teachings of the Church. No politician can say that their primary concern is for our soul. The Church can say this.
3) He is personally hurt by the tone of the fighting over this election.Both parties are inconsistently pro-life - life at the beginning, the middle and the end. We need to demand that our political parties be consistently pro-life from beginning to end. Our energy should go there, and not in fighting with each other.
"There," he said. "That wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be."
Have you ever visited Sacred Space? They have an excellent Lenten webpage, which I have linked here.
It is run by the Irish Jesuits. Blessings on your Lent!
The homily on the Gospel this week was insightful.
Father Qui-Thac suggested that the other 9 were indeed obedient. They did exactly what Jesus told them to do. But the one who returned! Ah, he looked to the Giver. What does it mean to go deeper?
As a side note, in the prayers of the faithful, did you catch that last one? About visiting someone who is alone this week? I thought of Grace Rogan over at St. Francis.
Last weekend we were in New York City attending 2 weddings. One wedding was of the son of wealthy Foreign Service friends' son, and so we sat at a table with old colleagues. Listening to people talk about their lives, I couldn't help but hear the Gospel of the previous Sunday of Lazarus, the poor man, and Dives, the rich man AND Fr. Qui-Thac's voice saying, "It's not what Dives did. It's what he didn't do." Our colleagues are all rich, healthy and retired. They have time and money and talent. A great sadness swept over me; it all seemed to naught. They are not bad people at all. And yet.
I do not want to be judgmental and if I said anything more I would be. The lesson here is not about other people and what they do or do not do, but what I am doing - and not doing.
Sunday's readings were particularly striking this past Sunday. I think "striking" is the word. Amos 6: 1a, 4-7
and the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. Fr. Qui-Thac focused on why the rich man was in hell; afterall, he didn't DO anything. And, of course, that was the problem.
The verse that struck me (and Larry O'Conner) was the last line of the Gospel, "Then Abraham said, 'If they will not
listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if
someone should rise from the dead.'"
It follows then to ask ourselves "Are we listening to Amos? REALLY listening?"
Here's the Peterson translation of those verses:
Woe to you who think you live on easy street in Zion,
Who think Mount Samaria is the good life.
You assume you’re oat the top of the heap,
Voted the number one best place to live.
Well, wake up and look around. Get off your pedestal.
Woe to those who live in luxury
And expect everyone else to serve them!
Woe to those who live only for today,
Indifferent to the fate of others!
Woe to the playboys, the playgirls,
Who think life is a party held just for them!
Woe to those addicted to feeling good – life without pain!
Those obsessed with looking good – life without wrinkles!
The could not care less
About their country going to ruin.
But here’s what’s really coming:
A forced march into exile.
They’ll leave the country whining,
A rag-tag bunch of good-for-nothings.
Yesterday we went to the 8:30 Mass at Assumption with my father, since it is his home parish. I miss going to Sacred Heart and seeing folks I know and love, but I think we may become a bi-parish family here.
This morning I was listening to a sermon on tape, as I do when I walk. Gordon Cosby, pastor of the Church of the Savior in Washington, D.C. was speaking on the text from a week ago, about leaving everything for God. Here's what he says " Our responsibility in the face of the clearly approaching God who has already come and is coming is to be totally committed and unreservedly do God's will. We give our heart simply, wholly to God. Everything else is secondary... We change our lives... We cannot serve two masters... Is this a hard saying or the richest promise that has ever been made?"
August 15, the celebration of the Assumption of Mary, is one of my favorite days. I think of it as a celebration of the body of a woman, an honoring of her physicalness. Getting to Mass on a Wednesday in the summer is not so easy, though. There is no vigil Mass tonight and no early morning Mass tomorrow at either of our Bellingham churches. I'm searching the internet to see what time evening Masses are tomorrow in Seattle, where we will be. This, too, is not so easy. Any ideas on how one searches?