A Regular Joe

Monday, March 20, 2017

SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP

[1]Once a farmer had an old mule. One day the mule fell into the farmers well.

The farmer liked the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and asked them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially the old mule was frightened! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hitting his back, a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, he would shake it off and step up!

This he did, blow after blow. "Shake it off and step up..., Shake it off and step up..., Shake it of and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself.

No matter how painful the blows, or how distressing the situation seemed, the old mule fought panic and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of the well! What seemed like it would bury him, actually helped him... all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.I couldn't help thinking of Moses when I read this story. Here's a guy who had already been through a lot in Egypt. First, he was a prince, then he discovered his real identity and found himself set off to the desert to die. As what seemed his lowest point he finds a home, a love, and a steady job. Life is good, until that burning bush started talking to him. This nameless God says, I want you to return to Egypt to free his people from pharaoh.

Change can feel like falling into a well. What makes it more challenging for Moses is the people, even after witnessing the hand of God destroy their enemies, they begin to grumble against Moses. We're thirsty, a shovel full on the back. Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Another shovel full on the back. Was it just to have us die here…with our children and livestock? Yet another shovel full on the back. Can you feel his anguish and concern, his feeling like he is being buried alive, as the cries out to the Lord?

Paul tells us, in our reading from Romans, that “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5)

Life is full of challenges and change. All of us experience change in our lives. Change is the one constant in our lives. There are changes that we look forward to, that feeds our feelings of hope Paul talks about, and change that we fear, challenging any feeling of hope. One thing is for sure, things will not stay the same no matter how much we would like them too. When a life change occurs, we have two choices in how to respond. We can despair the change has come and assume the worst, or we can look with excitement at the new possibilities the change presents.[3]

Moses may have experienced anxiety with his life changes, yet he lifts his voice to God for direction. Paul, after getting knocked from his high horse, literally, learned to embrace his life change and became a passionate witness of a hope that does not disappoint. The woman at the well, inquisitively engages Jesus who be revealing his identity, change her communal status from outcast to a believable witness of hope.

For the Catechumen and those seeking full communion with the Church, at the Easter Vigil, it is any exciting time! Discovering the Messiah, like the woman at the well, their hearts on fire to witness to the joy and hope of the promises of an all loving and merciful God. For them and all of us that profess faith in the risen savior, there is a cost to this discipleship. Know this, to live the Good News will bring change, an interior and exterior change, change that can feel like shovel load after shovel load of dirt being thrown on our backs, even to the point of distress and a willingness to consider a return to Egypt, a return to the way we use to be.

Can we be real for a moment? Speaking for myself, I often find it quite easy to talk to others about their life changes. To encourage them in the opportunities that lie before them, even if it is a traumatic change, such as a serious illness, a major family move, or even a death of a family member or close friend. However, when the change is mine, if feels like I've fallen into a well, with every step in the process of change is like the shovel full of dirt beating me down. My first reaction is much like the Nation of Israel, despite all the blessings God has showered on me, I grumble. Yep, even though I made the choice, I grumble. It's not until I abandon myself to God's will that I am able to see the hope Paul witnesses too, that I am able to shake it off and step up.

It's all about how we face lives challenges and changes. If we face our problems and respond to them positively, refusing to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity we will be able to shake it off and step up, triumphantly.

[2] http://www.facebook.com/pg/IdeasForLife2016/videos/?ref=page internal "The farmer and the mule"

Sunday, January 29, 2017

BLESSED ARE YOU…

1He was a square peg in a round hole, felt like he came from outer space. He picked up a drink at the age of twelve, after his two sisters had their wedding receptions in their home. He left school at fourteen-and-a-half to work with his father as a bricklayer. The money was good, but he was not cut out for it. He would have liked to be an artist and paint people and landscapes.

After drinking with a lot of English lads on Sydney's North Shore he thought it would be nice to go to England, as Sydney was the problem. London in the late sixties was all the go and he could drink as he liked, without Mum and Dad seeing him. (They were the problem!)

A lot of people thought he was English as he would put on the accent. He’d always imitated other people's talk, he just couldn’t be himself. He hated himself, and never fit in. He had a big mouth when drunk and became violent, but he couldn’t see it was the drink. He thought he was just mad. (Mad from drink!). The next day he would have the "hair of the dog" to feel all right and try to forget what had happened, but he couldn’t.

He thought people who told him what he did during blackouts lied. He told people not to live with him as he didn’t know what he might do when drunk. He hated the world and thought if he drank a lot it would kill him. He couldn't do it himself as it is a sin.

He was reading the section in the "Big Book" (the book Alcoholics Anonymous) called “Freedom from Bondage” that got him praying for his dad, whom he hated. It turned hate to love and set him free. He had thought only drink could set him free. Instead it held him in bondage for years.2

The first two steps of a twelve-step program are to admit both our powerlessness and our need for a power greater than ourselves to restore us to sanity. In other words, we cannot heal ourselves. We need to abandon our desire for control and recognize our utter dependence upon someone or something greater than ourselves. For Christians, this means recognizing that we are utterly dependent upon God and mutually dependent upon each other. The Beatitudes, attitudes for being disciples of Jesus, say something similar.3

Today’s gospel is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. At first, it sounds beautiful; on second thought, it seems all wrong; and finally, it all makes sense. The language Jesus uses is eloquent, idealistic, and inspiring, but if you listen carefully, you can see it is directly opposed to several taken-for-granted articles of commonly accepted, so-called wisdom. For example: the way to be happy is to own as much as you can. Pain and suffering are to be avoided at all costs. Always try to be in control. Write off anyone who neglects you or doesn’t appreciate you. If anyone tries to insult you, don’t get mad; get even. Steer clear of the peaceniks, who try to turn you into a wimpy, do-gooder, bleeding heart.

Jesus is surrounded by a massive crowd of sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and really, really religious people, and really, really Gentile people who aren’t really, really considered religious by the really, really religious people. There’s this massive spectrum of humanity and in its midst, is Jesus, who begins: “Blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:3)4

What Jesus is doing here is making an announcement. An announcement is a fundamentally different way of framing something. He’s not giving instruction—like twelve steps to get God’s blessing. This is not a command—like here’s what you need to do in order to be blessed. This is not advice—here’s how I would approach the question of blessings. He announces that God is on the side of everybody for whom there’s no reason why God should be on their side. He announces to all of those who feel that they don’t deserve the blessing of God, the blessing of God is here and it’s yours.

Now that’s Good News!!

Here the other side of the coin. Our reading from Corinthians tells us the Jewish wisdom saw God as the sole source of concrete, embodied wisdom. So Beware! The moment we look down upon somebody because they aren’t as disciplined, hardworking, upright, smart, responsible, moral, God-fearing, bible-believing, or Jesus-loving as we are—because they’ve made idiotic, poor, or immoral choices again and again and again—it is at that moment we are in fact rich in spirit and Jesus isn’t announcing anything to us. Instead, it is our pathetic, bedraggled, confused, morally ambiguous state in which there’s nothing good within us that God announces, “I’m on your side.”5

Anyone think they are on the outs? God’s blessing is now pouring out on you. The Kingdom of Heaven has now become available in a fresh new way for all the people who have absolutely no claim to it and who don’t deserve it.

Blessed are those who there’s no reason in the world why they should be blessed.

[2] http://www.aa.org.au/ “He Felt He Was Mad”

Sunday, January 8, 2017

AN UNEXPECTED GIFT

[1]As a man was enjoying his Christmas gifts, his sister sent him an unexpected gift via e-mail. A story about their father she'd heard at a reunion party.

They were remember his father who was a very quiet man, who owned a small grocery store, earned his GED when he was in his 40s, and eventually became a government meat inspector. When he retired, he went around the corner to another small grocery store to sit at their register to check people out. If kept him our of the house, out of his wife's hair, and quite frankly, kept him sane since he'd started working when he was 14 and really didn't know what to do with his day if he wasn't.

One day a young man, about 15, came into the grocery store. He was a neighborhood kid, his dad knew him, as he knew everyone in the neighborhood. The kid had a gun and held it on his dad demanding money. His dad took the gun from the kid, sent the kid out of the store and put the gun in a paper bag. When work was over, his dad walking to the home of the young man's father and returned the gun. Telling the father what happened with the assumption the father would want to know if the young man was walking down the wrong path and the young man needed to be set straight.

As the man read what his sister wrote, his eyes widened with amazement. "My father, my quiet, unassuming, 'start every day at the 7 a.m. Mass and never raise his voice' father, had confronted a gun-wielding teenager and taken the gun from him. Then quietly walked to the boy's home, to give his father a chance to make a difference rather than call the police." Doing all this without, apparently, mentioning it anyone.

Reading that story, the man realized he had groun up with this man. Thought he knew him. He knew of his kindness to so many young people he helped with no fuss or bother or need for acknowledgement. He knew of his gentleness having watched him handle his mother, who was, some might say, high maintenance on many levels. He watched him work 6 1/2 days a week in the store to put food on the table and still find time to do the books for the Knights of Columbus.

Yet knowing all that, what he didn't realize was what a quiet hero he was and the inner strength he possessed. His father took a gun away from a young man and gave that young man a chance to try again.[2]

The blessings of God, our Father, we hear in our scriptures today, went out to the whole world—not just to our Jewish brothers and sisters, but to all. So why does God allow so much chaos in the world? Even at the birth of Jesus, scripture tells us, there was no peace! We know how King Herod stayed in power. He killed people, his family, even the young children after the Magi “departed for their country by another way” (Mt 2:12). So what does this epiphany tell us? What did the wise men see? What kind of king did they see in a baby lying in a manger? Were their eyes opened, did they begin to realize what would come forth from a feeding trough?

This Jesus, who would become Christ, would feed us, sustain us, and invite us with Eucharist. So, from being fed from the feeding trough, to being fed at the altar in Eucharist, the two come together and can never be separated. This is God’s way to invite us to another chance “to be” Eucharist. He invites us to be a Eucharistic people—to regain what is lost.

Perhaps the wise men saw new life, new joy, a new family, but they also knew death. Yet they knew the child could bring it all to resurrection.[3]

During this New Year, maybe it’s time to learn from our wise men. Maybe it’s our time to let love in. We must live together and love together. Not just within our own formation cohorts, home groups or parishes, but with all God’s children. When the gospel is preached in its purity and lived with integrity, there is no place for racism, sexism, ageism, or any other ism that corrupts and divides. At its best, Christianity is a unifying force, helping people of nations and cultures all over the world to practice justice and live in peace. This feast of the Epiphany reminds us, not only to tolerate, but also to respect people of other faiths.[4]

So when disasters occur, wars take place, or there is unrest in our own lives, maybe God is asking all of us to realize we are all one family, God’s family that we all belong to Him and He wants to give us another chance to be in communion. If this happens, we know this little baby in a manger, from the feeding trough in Bethlehem, will always feed us at this altar and bring us all to resurrection. The ultimate unexpected gift for all God’s children.

[2] adn.com, “Story about parent an unexpected gift”, by Elise Patkotak. Published December 21, 2010.