Compassion, Not Vengeance. Maybe Some Hope on the Side.

Lately I can't write - yes, I know that is how I started my last post too. My juices are just not flowing; waiting for the thaw, I suppose.  However, I am trying to get over here and say something every few days.

Today I was in the car listening to Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) response to the President's weekly message and I found myself getting angry.  It felt like a rhetorical train wreck to me, but maybe that was just my January ennui matched up with a full moon.

Upon returning home and losing any patience I had left trying to figure out my new phone, I decided to check out some online reading. I came across this great reflection about Howard Zinn, on the Commonweal blog. The post links to Zinn's great post 9/11 essay from the Chronicle of Higher Education and is entitled, Compassion, Not Vengence.

This paragraph in particular, struck me: (remember it was written 15 days after 9/11):

We need to think about the resentment all over the world felt by people who have been the victims of American military action -- in Vietnam, in Latin America, in Iraq. We need to think about the anger of Palestinians, who know that the weapons used against them are supplied by the United States. We need to understand how some of those people will go beyond quiet anger to acts of terrorism.

Wow. As if we even understood resentment. Then I think about Susan Collins' words in the weekly response today. Quite opposite ends of the spectrum, don't you think?

In the Commonweal post there is also a video of Zinn, which I will post here. Many have written about him and eulogized him this week, but this is the only place that I saw this particular - and particularly good, short video.



Zinn was right. We need compassion not vengeance. We need hope, which is real power. You know who totally got that? Gets it still - Jesus. Think on that for a bit if you will, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not. Maybe you are not a follower - maybe, like me, you admire Jesus a lot, but this following business is hard.

It requires compassion and not vengeance. It requires compassion, courage and hope. 

All of which seem to be in very short supply.

Grace - Not A "Begrudged Mop Up Exercise"

January 2010 will go down as a time in my life when writing did not come easily to me. Part of it is time - or a lack of it. Part of it is... I don't know. I wish I could explain it; I wish I could lean into it and keep writing. Not much comes.

Today however, I read this link from the Center for Action and Contemplation, home of my favorite Franciscan, Richard Rohr, OFM. It got me thinking about a lot of things and I will make some attempt to write about them here.

Rohr starts out with this (emphasis mine):

God fills in the gaps of human deficiency by a great act of mercy and compassion, and the word for that great act for St. Paul is “Christ.”  For him Christ is the name for God’s great compassion, God’s great plan, God’s readiness to fill in the gaps of human sin, brokenness, poverty, and failure.  It is not a begrudged mop-up exercise after the fact, but as John Duns Scotus taught us Franciscans, “Christ was the very first idea in the mind of God.”  “All was created through him and for him …and he holds all things in unity and reconciles all within himself” (Colossians 1:16-17, 20).  Christ is God’s master plan and blueprint for history!  Salvation was the plan from the beginning, and not a mere response to our mistakes.

God fills in... I love this beginning because it points to a God that loves us and so generously cares for us. This is the opposite of a meaner view of God, put forth by so many and accepted by so many. In fact, accepted by people who are not even sure that God exists!

I think this also addresses a school of religious thought that puts the focus on us as humans. If we do all this heavy lifting, from prayer to whatever actions and devotions, it is as if we were cleaning up with the Cosmic Swiffer.

Make no mistake, I think that our actions matter - but not because we are changing God! No God is always changing us, when we allow such change.

Rohr continues:

So why do we make the Gospel into a cheap worthiness contest? After all, we have all fallen short of the glory (Romans 3:23, 5:12) and all are saved by mercy (Romans 11:32-36). Even Mary proclaims it of herself (four times!) in her “Magnificat” (Luke 1:47-55). Popes and priests, presidents and politicians are all saved “en Cristo” and by mercy and in our undeserved state. No exceptions.


God does not love us if we change. God loves us so that we can change. These are two very different scenarios, but most of Christian history has sadly chosen the first.

Not if we can change, but rather so we can change. This isn't a cleanup operation, it is an invitation to become the very people that God has loved into being. This is an invitation to respond to the grace that is all around us.

How this propels me on a January morning and makes the embers of my writing fire begin to glow again.

It's Like, You Know - A Treatise on Being "Aggressively Inarticulate"

I found the video at the end of this post on Doxy's Facebook page and I was astounded when I watched it. It made me think of my own "lazy language" and how the impact of contemporary culture and the use of social media impacts communication.

One day last year, Lisa and I were on the phone. I recall that we talked about the intersection of cultural decline and the loss of language. This has all been happening and as with many things, by the time we notice it, it is nothing new.

That does not make it any less alarming.

Mind you, language is alive - so it will change. That is not the problem. How language changes speaks volumes about the culture that puts the change into motion.

One of the reasons that this is on my mind is due to a Facebook comment thread on my blog the other day. A former co-worker of mine, a fine person, but one with very different political views than my own, made a remark about the Obama administration. He said (emphasis mine):

Change is only possible when the majority agrees that change is not only needed, but the best course of action. You can't just shove it down everyone's throat. No matter how much we all may agree that change is needed, you need the buy in from the majority. If not then this administration is making the same mistakes as their predecessor.

 This notion of how Obama is "shoving" things down our throats continues to astound and amaze me. What does it say about language, perception and propaganda?

Personally, while I am not as hard on Obama as many of my compatriots, I do think that he has made numerous mistakes. (It should be noted that I am listening to John Boehner, always known for his collaborative ways, in the background on NPR. He is talking about how the President needs to listen to people and be more bi-partisan.)

However, just how the conversation about healthcare or bi-partisan politics is framed, seems to be defined by the somehow-more-aggressively-inarticulate. In some bizarre and counter-intuitive way, they are more, dare I say, articulate.




Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Some thoughts on January 22

I am pretty certain that this post will upset many. I have come to loathe the words liberal and conservative. They serve no point and I often find myself in some netherworld between the two. Anyone who knows me also knows how I feel about dualistic thinking and as such, this ends up not being an unusual position to hold - both/and.

As such, I have spent a lot of time in the past two years in the both/and space of my more (for lack of a better term) liberal friends and in my life as a Roman Catholic. Now anyone who thinks that claiming Catholicism and then automatically holding a certain set of views is not taking into consideration the ambiguity and challenge of life. Catholics are instructed to believe one thing, but that does not mean that they always do believe it. Also, sometimes they believe it at the expense of other beliefs.

As for my life as a Catholic, I have had to plumb some depths that I was not always willing to plumb; it is like that when you need to confront what you truly believe. I think that willingness is the operative word; it is for me.

Just as the word homosexual conjures up images of wanton sex and riotous living among the most conservative, the words pro-life conjure up images of people like this. That someone kills like that disgusts me and does not show us any regard for life.

Like all stereotypes, I ask you to look beyond them all.

I also post this video, which I found at the very thought provoking Catholic blog, Καθολικός διάκονος. Scott's post was entitled, Ideology Cannot Move Us. I think he is right.





Being "for" abortion no more means that you want to kill babies than being "against" abortion means that I want to kill those who provide for them or that I want women to die in back alleys. Anyone who thinks that the reversal of Roe V. Wade is a simple solution has not thought this through. To continually demonize serves neither side; it does not serve the cause of life, the cause of peace and the cause of human dignity.

Let the comments begin.

The Politicization of the Haitian Tragedy

The Haitian Earthquake has brought out the best and the worst in so many ways. I had seen this video from Woman Up video at Politics Daily. I am home sick so I have had a bit more internet time on my hands and I am glad that I revisited this video.

I know, who has 7 minutes, but give it a shot. I think you might like what you see. That said, like it or not, it is very thought provoking. And I frankly don't think that 7 minutes is long enough for the topics covered by Women Up video!



Seeing this video a second time, in the aftermath of all of the politicizing of this tragedy was very thought provoking.

A few things that caught my attention were:

The ugly truth that there are "rewards" built into our system for being hateful. That is an understatement!  Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh dragged the conversation down, Keith Olbermann went as low with his criticism of them. Discussion carried on along those lines with Bonnie Erbe saying that Rush Limbaugh was a PR man and that as such, he knew how to stir the pot and get ratings.

It was brought up that all of this matters to the public discourse and we all know how that plays out every day in comment box arguments on blogs and Facebook and with a zillion angry postings. (By the way, it is never anger that I am against, I am against the vitriolic anger that fuels more of the same.)

Was it a bad idea to call on George W. Bush to help raise money? Do we have too many pressing domestic issues? New Orleans is still a mess and Galveston.

The two things that really got me came near the end of the segment. The first was at about 6:30 when Bonnie Erbe mentioned the tremendous need for education. I was reminded of something I read over at Diane's blog, Faith in Community, that said, "It's not the earthquake that killed people," she said. "It's poverty." I think that there is so much truth to that. We often see the sorrowful intersection of lack of education and great poverty. Reading that made me think of Suzy at Luminous Ether, such a champion of reading and learning. 

The second thing that caught my attention near the end of the video was Melinda Henneberger noting that C.S. Manegold had written a great piece about Haiti's history at PD.  If you have not read this - please go do so. It is outstanding! Can someone send it to Pat Robertson please?

Anyway, what say you about how this has been politicized?

Why? The Haitian Earthquake Disaster

Even the most ardent Christian may stop to ask "why?" when faced with suffering beyond imagining.  Even Jesus asked that the cup be taken from him in his moment of despair in the garden.

One of the reasons many people scoff at religion is because they believe that God causes suffering. That is far too much a topic to take on today and I am reminded that for those who need an explanation, none is generally acceptable and for others, no explanation is necessary.

Certainly Haiti has already faced monstrous despair beyond what most of us can imagine. Maybe you read my post about our visit from the Food for the Poor priest, Father Bob. It is gut wrenching to consider the plight of Haiti on the best of  days.

Now it is beyond the beyond.

There is a spectrum of human response. I do not mean to knock anyone, but when someone who has the audience that Pat Robertson has, it seems unconscionable to suggest that this has to do with a pact with the devil. Frankly, as Catholics, that is pretty theologically far from what we believe. In any event, if people are suffering, even if we are helping them, does it do any good to have this kind of discussion? I do not believe that it does.

The other end of the spectrum has people saying that there is no God, or that if God exists, He is cruel. And there are those who would say that saying that we are holding the Haitians in our prayers is a waste of time and not helpful to the Haitians. To each their own, but I am not really sure what the point of that kind of talk is.

In the heart of the disaster you don't stop to talk about this kind of stuff - you get out there and do what you can. At least that is what an appropriate Christian response should be. If you are not sure, please consider referencing the parables of the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan, just for starters.

Catholic Relief Services is on the ground in Haiti... And they have been for a very long time. Another Catholic charity is Hands Together. They are based in Western Massachusetts and they came to speak at our parish in July 2008. They could use your help if you want to donate to them instead of, or along with a donation to CRS. There are many ways to donate.

Our Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, is asking for help from the Catholics of Albany.  If you are in this diocese, please expect a second collection request at mass this weekend. Many of us are challenged at this point, but give what you can, if you can! No amount is too small.

My friend Paul Snatchko wrote a really good piece today, addressing the "why?"

Considering the tragedy that has taken place in Haiti, the final verse of the Psalm at Mass today stings:

“Why do you hide your face,
forgetting our woe and our oppression?
For our souls are bowed down to the dust,
our bodies are pressed to the earth.”

Why?

It’s the question of the day.

Why does God permit the earth to rumble beneath us?

Why did God permit the earth to move under Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas?

Go read the whole thing - you won't be disappointed.

And pray, and give and share links and do what you can.

And be thankful today. Even if things are rough, you probably had food today, a roof over your head and a pillow to lay your head on.

We all remember someone very important to us, who did not always have the basics either, yet we trust Him for everything and just celebrated that potentially roofless, pillowless place, not so long ago.

Living Ourselves Into A New Way of Believing - The Baptism of the Lord

This Sunday we mark the end of the Christmas season with the Baptism of the Lord. There are various readings that each parish can choose from and you will find them all here.

The Gospel remains the same however and comes from Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. Luke starts out with complete clarity:

The people were filled with expectation,

That says it! And we remain a people filled with expectation, don't we? And it is funny how we react when those expectations don't unfold as we imagine that they would or should.

Luke goes on and tells us this:

all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.

People were so hungry for a messiah. We have one and we still feel this hunger!  And it seemed that John just might be the one from what everyone saw at that time. John knew better however and let them know that he was simply "a finger pointing to the moon." Meaning, that he was there to prepare for one much greater.

Expectations not yet met, hopes not yet fulfilled.

It is very remarkable that we see that Jesus does come to John and John baptizes him.  In the Gospel of Mark it is much more clear that John is a little taken aback by this... If Jesus is the true messiah, why would he allow himself to be baptized by John? Why wouldn't Jesus do the baptizing? As always, Jesus is found in unlikely place or found doing many unlikely things.

This is, in my mind anyway, an invitation to get out of our heads and out of our expectations. We believe that Jesus is Lord and we have certain expectations about that fact.

Jesus IS Lord, but how do we respond to the invitation to get out of our own way, blocked by our expectations and limited beliefs?

What is that old line - we don't believe ourselves into a new way of living but rather we live ourselves into a new way of believing. Something like that!

If baptism is to open our hearts and minds, that is exactly what we must do. It is not easy, but it is simple. I am going to give it a try for once, I hope that you will join me.

Crazy- Squared and Updated

I've got nothing - things are too crazy and busy. So I will post this video and dedicate it to my girl KZD. She likes this song and so do I. When I was at our wedding literally left a conversation with zero explanation because I *had* to dance to this. Maybe I'm crazy.



This Crazy is for my girl Beth, who used to blog but now is a Facebook maven. I got this off of (ick) MySpace, I did not like the video selections. It is Crazy by Pylon.

Different Crazy, different time of life, both great songs.

Chomp More album by Pylon

There is No Church of One. A Post About The Urge To Connect, Pilgrimage and The Power of Community

 Actual photographic evidence of my journey!

On Sunday morning I set forth in the frigid morning, snow falling and began to drive the two hours from my house to Rutland, VT. My objective was to go visit Caminante, to worship with her at her church and to then break bread in another way.

For a little history, I had visited Caminante in August 2008 when she was living further north in Vermont. A few months later she moved to Rutland and it seemed that we might see more of each other. Sadly, time and circumstances conspired otherwise and it took us until now to pull this blogger meet up off.

For those who do not know her, Caminante, she is an Episcopal priest and has been for almost 16 years; this month is her ordination anniversary. Knowing her and being in this online church with her has given me great comfort and joy.

It is entirely unlikely that I would become an Episcopalian, but my Catholic life is tremendously enriched by all my Episcopal and Anglican blogfriends. Who understands these things? Not I - but I revel in the grace that results from it all.

The driving was treacherous but not the worst I have ever been in. I would have turned around if I thought I could not do it. My two hour trip was more like two and a half hours and that is not so bad! I was reminded of my August visit and the rich green of Vermont as I drove through the white-out version!

The interior of Trinity Rutland.

The liturgy was beautiful; she presides so beautifully and her preaching is truly wonderful. You can read her sermon if you visit this link to her church blog. The message of her sermon illustrated that we are a pilgrim people, a pilgrim church. She touched on matters of the Incarnation and I will now want to be barefoot in church more often; she weaves in the power of community and mission. Oh the simple truth of the notion that there is no church of one.  I found it brilliant.

 This is the smaller chapel space, very beautiful and prayerful.

It is very edifying for me to hear a woman proclaim the Gospel, to preach and to preside at the table of the Lord. It is a reminder that our time and our plans are not God's time or God's plans. It is a theme of my life that things that are unlikely or unexpected happen all the time. So while I put no money on these matters happening quickly in my own church, I can take solace in that the fact that they likely will at some point.

Thanks be to God. (see below to meet some of Caminante's kitties!)

Epiphany

Unlikely, unexpected, out of the ordinary, not what you might think.

Such is Epiphany.

I really wanted to write about Epiphany and the the fact that the unlikely appearance of the baby in the stable. I did!

However I had an Epiphany of sorts and found a new blog called The Open Tabernacle.

So all the time that I was going to be writing about the Epiphany was spent having an actual epiphany.

So be it. Go follow a star, do something unlikely, stand with those far outside the circle of so-called respectability.

Maybe you'll find God in some unlikely corner and in yourself while doing so.

Mary the Mother of God

January 1 is the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. If you read these pages you know I have been very Mary-ish of late. Of late? I am *always* very Mary-ish. Once I had a Protestant boyfriend who wanted me to join his church and my constant reply would be "No Mary? No Fran."

It's not idolatry, but I can see how some might see it that way.

Today I read a heart-stoppingly great post by Eileen at Episcopalifem in which she shared some thoughts about Mary. One of the things that comes up is the image of Mary that we are given, which is so disturbingly saccharine and one-dimensional.

In any case, I have written/spoken about Mary twice recently - here and here, if you wish to have a look. Both times I address some of this perceived weakness, if that is the right word. It is easy to get caught up in that and give up on Mary, but Mary is the one who spoke to me when I was returning to Church and I stick with her.

I mean let's face it - God could have gone down a lot of roads to find ways to enflesh the spirit. Even going the traditional pregnant woman route - he could have chosen a woman from a higher class... but no. God, being God - used the unlikely and goes with a very young woman who comes from Galilee. That is a theological statement- anything that comes from Galilee and not Jerusalem is "lesser than." This was no mistake.

So he calls upon this young girl, one from the margins and that is how God is made human. When people question my love of Mary and my Roman Catholic faith I want to point them here and say - "Are you kidding me? This is so outrageous! Extreme and unlikely and how could I not be completely in love with all of this?"

Which brings us back to our feast day on New Year's Day... This feast, once again celebrating Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos - the God bearer. All the sweet little images can come and go; this is a woman of some serious substance and the way that God is made manifest in human form, through her. Wow. 

It is completely radical and subversive in so many ways! All hidden in plain sight - amid the little lady dressed in blue devotional materials. No offense to those by the way- I had to enter in through that door. I bought the whole thing hook, line and sinker.  However, like any meaningful, intimate relationship some level of maturation is required. You can't stay where you were when you met if you expect to be in relationship in an authentic way - right?

So I think of Mary as many things - sweet, subservient and meek is not among them. As for the virginal - I will quote myself here, referring to one of the links from above:

We are all called to give birth to the Christ in some way, from our own virgin territory. Oh - that. It doesn't matter, we all have virgin territory, those places in our souls, however seemingly tiny and shrouded, where we have the tender untouched, flesh given to us by God.

If I distill this down it is that we all must find our inner virgin. The very word is so loaded in our culture - enough for a whole other post sometime. Face it - we disdain virgins in our culture, we do. And by doing so, we disdain a very essential part of our own inner being.

Our virginity - and I am speaking very broadly here - is not something to quickly rid ourselves of and be done with, like an old and slightly embarrassing piece of clothing.  Think about this and reflect on what this might mean.

In any case, if we get lost in the little lady, the virginal as expressed through the context of patriarchy and oppression- well then we might lose the thread of Mary. And if we do, we lose something essential. She is the golden thread that really pulls the true Golden Thread into the weaving.

Before I go, I must point you to another post that is must-read material. Michael Iafrate is an amazing young Catholic writer who blogs at Vox Nova (a blog I often have trouble reading) and at his own place, catholicanarchy.org. I highly, highly recommend reading his work.

In any case, he did an end of year post that pointed me back to something he wrote in September, about the Rosary. You can find that here. It is a rich piece of writing and he shares this post from Brother Vito, a Capuchin, who suggests the Subversive Mysteries for the Rosary. Oh my - go read this, it is amazing!

Well I have gone on far too long - no wonder someone I know calls me "Ramblin' Rose."  Anyway, it is the Feast of Mary the Mother of God and I am delighted to begin this year celebrating her.

Happy New Year to all.