Witnessing Christ to the World

The first reading of the Office of Readings for Wednesday of the Easter Octave came from the first epistle of St. Peter, chapter 2, verses 11-25.  It has had me thinking over the past few days about our life of witness, especially in times such as these - in the context of the corona virus as well as so many other challenges presented to our life of witness in this age and in these United States.

The first thing that made me stop and give serious thought as I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament was the first phrase: "Beloved, you are strangers and in exile."  Think about that.  We are strangers and in exile.  That isn't the way we generally think of ourselves.

In my experience, these past 50 years, it seemed we think of the USA as a Christian country, or, at least a country that was once founded on Christian principles.   That doesn't really sound like "strangers in exile", does it?  
The great difficulty is when we start with the idea that we live in a Christian country, or even a country that once was, we have expectations about how society ought to be.  When we discover that it isn't what we believe it ought to be our response becomes something other than the response of strangers in exile.  We tend to respond not as strangers in exile but as those who have been betrayed; we respond with anger, indignation, self righteousness.
 As I see what is posted on social media, listen to people around me, I wonder what our Lord would say if we could hear Him speak.  I sometimes wonder if He wouldn't say to us something along the lines of what he said to Simon Peter in the Garden: "sheath your sword.  Those who live by the sword will die by the sword."

So, how do we give witness of our faith to the world?  How do we act in concord with what we claim to be: one with the Body of Christ?

I don't pretend to have answers here, though I have spent a fair bit of time in prayer and consideration of this issue.  I'm hoping to start a conversation amongst the faithful, especially those who are engaged in a particular, intentional, public witness to society - i.e. those involved in pro-life work, those advocating for the freedom of religion, etc.  We have had many opportunities to engage the world over these past fifty years in particular.  Through conversation and much prayer maybe we can come to an understanding of how we can confront the world as credible witnesses of Christ.
Your well-considered comments are most appreciated.

Sacramental Communion

One of the great difficulties more specific to Catholics during this corona virus stay-at-home order is unlike "churches of the Word" who can communicate their message via various forms of Mass communication (television, radio, internet-livestreaming), the Catholic Church is a sacramental church.  This means that it isn't about simply communicating a message, but bringing about an encounter.  Yes, messages are important; we want to communicate what Christ has taught and we strive to apply His teaching and message to the contemporary situation - the signs of the times.  But a sacramental church is about more than a message - it's about a person.
While we do what we can at this time - which for many is connecting through word and image,  it is not only not ideal, it is missing a critical component: presence & community.

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, makes this point in his homily for this past Friday.  I encourage you to read it and bring it to prayer.  I would also encourage you to "read between the lines" and see a pastor who is struggling as all priests are.  Blessings!

FULL HOMILY [translated by ZENIT’s Virginia Forrester]

The disciples were fishermen: in fact, Jesus called them while they were at work. Andrew and Peter were casting a net. They left their nets and followed Jesus (Cf. Matthew 4:18-20). The same with John and James: they left their father and the boys working with them and followed Jesus (Cf. Matthew 4:21-22). The call was in fact in their job of fishermen. And this passage of today’s Gospel, this miracle, of the miraculous catch, makes us think of another miraculous catch, that which Luke recounts (Cf. Luke 5:1-11), the same thing also happened there. They had a catch, when they thought they didn’t have any. After He ceased speaking, Jesus said: “Put out into the deep” — “We toiled all night and took nothing!” “Go.” “Trusting in His word — Peter says — I will let down the nets.” Such was the quantity there — says the Gospel – that “they were astonished” (Cf. Luke 5:9) by that miracle. Today, in this other catch, there is no talk of astonishment. A certain naturalness is seen, one sees that there was progress, a path covered in knowledge of the Lord, in intimacy with the Lord; I’ll say the just word: in familiarity with the Lord. When John saw this, he said to Peter: “It is the Lord!”, and Peter put on his clothes and sprang into the water to go to the Lord (Cf. John 21:7). The first time, he knelt before Him and said: “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Cf. Luke 5:8). This time he doesn’t say anything, he is more natural. No one asked: “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord, the encounter with the Lord was natural; the Apostles’ familiarity with the Lord had grown.
We Christians too, in our life’s journey are in this state of walking, of progressing in familiarity with the Lord. The Lord, I could say, is somewhat “at hand,” but “at hand” because He walks with us; we know it is He. No one here asked Him: “Who are You?” They knew it was the Lord. That of a Christian is a daily familiarity with the Lord. And, not doubt, they had breakfast together, with the fish and bread; no doubt they spoke of many things naturally. This familiarity of Christians with the Lord is always of community. Yes, it’s intimate, it’s personal but in community. A familiarity without community, a familiarity without Bread, a familiarity without the Church, without the people, without the Sacraments is dangerous. It could become — let’s say –a gnostic familiarity, a familiarity only for myself, detached from the people of God. The Apostles’ familiarity with the Lord was always that of community, it was always at table, sign of community; it was always with the Sacrament, with the Bread.
I say this because someone made me reflect on the danger that this moment that we are living, this pandemic that has made all of us communicate, including religiously, through the media, through the means of communication, also this Mass, we are all communicating, but not together, we are spiritually together. The people are small <in number but> there are many people: we are together, but not together. The Sacrament also: you have it, the Eucharist, today, but the people that are connected with us only have Spiritual Communion. And this isn’t the Church: this is the Church of a difficult situation, which the Lord permits, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the Sacraments — always.

Before Easter, when the news came out that I was to celebrate Easter in an empty Saint Peter’s, a Bishop wrote me — a good Bishop, good, and he reproached me. “But how come, Saint Peter’s is so big, why don’t you put at least 30 persons there, so that people are seen? There won’t be a danger . . . “I thought: “But what does he have in his head to say this to me?” At that moment, I didn’t understand. However, as he is a good Bishop, very close to the people, he must want to say something to me. When I meet him, I’ll ask him. Then I understood. He was saying to me: “Be careful not to virtualize the Church, to virtualize the Sacraments, to virtualize the People of God. The Church, the Sacraments, the People of God are concrete. It’s true that at this moment we must have this familiarity with the Lord in this way, but <we must come out of the tunnel, not stay there. And this is the familiarity of the Apostles: not gnostic, not virtualized, not egotistical for each one of them, but a concrete familiarity in the people — familiarity with the Lord in daily life, familiarity with the Lord in the Sacraments, in the midst of the People of God. They undertook a path of maturity in familiarity with the Lord: let us also learn to do it. They understood from the first moment that this familiarity was different from that which they imagined, and they arrived at this. They knew it was the Lord, they shared everything: the community, the Sacraments, the Lord, peace and celebration.
May the Lord teach us this intimacy with Him, this familiarity with Him but in the Church, with the Sacraments, with the holy faithful people of God.
The Pope ended the celebration with Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction, inviting the faithful to make a Spiritual Communion.

Easter Homily

The Lord is risen, Alleluia! / He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

This has been as strange a Triduum as I have ever celebrated, but I have been so gratified by the participation at our parking lot Masses.  As I’ve said, there is a difference between watching Mass on tv and “being there”, even if that means from your car.  What has been even more gratifying has been the number of you who, having navigated the pandemic thus far, have confirmed that, “Yes”, there is a difference.

As I thought about what God is communicating to us on this Easter Day, in the context of the present pandemic, I kept coming back to the first words from the logia of St. Peter’s Basilica of our Holy Father of happy memory, Pope St. John Paul the Great, after his election: “Be not afraid!”

There seems to be not a few people who are either trying to frighten us into believing the world is on the brink of collapse or have bought into that world view so thoroughly that they themselves can no longer function.

Three days ago I saw an animation someone made and posted of how dangerous it is to go to the grocery store.  The animation showed the layout of a grocery store with a very few people in various aisles. One of the figures in the animation sneezed and the animation then followed the sneeze particles as they rose and ballooned and then spread through the store.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a cable news anchor break down in tears and declare that she couldn’t go on because she was so afraid.

Now, I get it.  The corona virus pandemic is real, and the danger to our health, not just those who are compromised health-wise, is real.  The more we are learning about how this virus works the more aware we become of the necessity for prudence in our social contacts.  As we heard in last evening’s first reading from the creation of the world (cf. Gen. 1-2), the life we have been given  is a life that is precious and we are to treat it with reverence, prudence, and wisdom; we don’t risk it willy-nilly, or without good reason.  However, we need not live in fear!

Fear comes of not taking deep into our hearts the message the Church gives witness to today: Christ is risen!  Hallelujah!  With the empty tomb we are made to understand that those who have died with Christ in Baptism need no longer fear the grave; for death no longer gets the final word.  We who have died with Christ will rise with Him!

What’s more, Christ is risen and is with us today!  In a few minutes, on this altar, the risen Christ will come to us again; not veiled in flesh but veiled under the appearance of bread and wine.  Christ is indeed with us and we need no longer fear.

But first we will renew our Baptismal promises whereby we renounced Satan, this fallen world, and all that draws us into fear.  We will again proclaim our faith in God the Father, God the risen Son, and God the Holy Spirit: We will proclaim our faith in His One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, given to us for the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of our own bodies on the last day: and as we rose with Him from the waters of Baptism, so we will rise to a new life where fear has no hold over us.

But, my brothers & sisters, there is one thing more yet: this is not a proclamation that we get to keep to ourselves.  Having received so great a gift we must then go out, as Peter does in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, and proclaim Christ’s resurrection and the salvation that it brings to us: not only a salvation that promises resurrection from the grave on the last day, but salvation here, now, as we rise from the depths of fear to a new and glorious day of resurrection in the here and now.

We have been told: “Be not afraid!”  We have been shown that neither death nor the corona virus has the last word.  It is now for us to live that resurrection; now, today, and until the day of our own bodily resurrection.

The Lord is risen, Alleluia! / He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Dad's Funeral

For those who would like I am posting the funeral homily and some pictures.  Again, thank-you for all your Masses, prayers, and condolences.  Thanks also to Fr. Charlie Richmond for live-streaming the funeral which can still be viewed on Facebook at the St. Mary's - Viroqua page.  Thanks too to Vosseteig Funeral Home, Westby for their assistance.

Daniel 12:1-3

Psalm 23
Revelations 14:13
John 19:17-18, 25-30

Hail Mary, full of grace…

Dad died in the eyes of this world at 4:12 AM, Monday, April 6, 2020;  in the eyes of God, my father passed over from this life into eternal life on Monday of Holy Week in the year of our Lord, 2020.

As I sat through the night Sunday night – Monday morning, and in the days since to this Holy Thursday I have seen the hand of providence all over my father’s passing.  The point of our life on earth is to live in Christ and for Christ to continue acting in this world through us: to be a reflection of His life and light.

These convergences begin with this funeral, celebrated on this Holy Thursday morning and without Holy Mass, because on Holy Thursday there IS only the Chrism Mass and the Mass, this evening, of the Lord’s Supper.  In the midst of this corona virus pandemic, in which not even my brothers and sister are able to be with us, not to mention my parent’s many friends and extended family, we must wait until the pandemic has passed before we can gather; and so we shall, around the Lord’s own Table on which is made present to us that Eucharist Who’s institution we will celebrate this evening.  This Eucharist, the Real Presence of Christ, will be celebrated when we can be together to celebrate it – one Body in Christ.

There is more.  Dad loved his Lord; he was devoted to Him, just as he was devoted to my mother.  And so, one of my clearest memories of growing up is that we NEVER missed Sunday Mass.  Drive through a snow-storm, drive for hours through south Georgia in the late 70’s, on vacation, even on vacation with their Lutheran friends: Mass, that is, their time with Jesus, present in the Most Holy Eucharist, was NOT to be missed.  So, it strikes me as even more poignant that we bury Dad on this day on which our Lord instituted and gifted us with His own Body & Blood, the Most Holy Eucharist.

Speaking of devotion to my mother, it seems fitting that they met in college selling brooms for the Newman Club at what was then La Crosse State.  They were so devoted to one another that it was rare that they were apart except for work or volunteering: lately, Dad at the Bethel Buttik or “Come to Supper”, and Mom at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and church.  A neighbor once commented that to the children our house was never just “Ed’s house” or “Pat’s house”, it was always “Ed & Pat’s house”.  What a beautiful lesson not only in Christian Marriage, but in the love of God for each of His children, to which Christian Marriage points us.  There is no question, about their devotion for each other, and in it I learned so beautifully about God’s love for me.

It’s no wonder that one of Dad’s favorite saints was St. Joseph.  They were both carpenters; and they were both devoted to the wife God had given them.  He also had a particular love for Blessed Solanus Casey, whose Icon as it would happen, shows him over a big soup pot, ladle in hand.

Dad’s faith was truly and very naturally the touchstone of his life.  Most of the time people only experienced it in his kindness or his desire to help others: students, neighbors, friends, and those most in need.  Every once in a while this underlying faith did come to the surface in a way that everyone could see, if they had eyes to see.  I remember sitting in Dad’s office at school one day hearing him tell his chemistry students that they should be consulting with their lab partner about the color of their titrations, not him; after all, “That’s why God gave you lab partners!” he said.

Of course, I do know that Mom & Dad’s faith was well known.  Dad decided to bring an exchange student home one day, she was having a rough time in her original placement.  I remember hearing the exchange coordinator warned that student “they are really serious Catholics, are you sure you want to go there?”  Happily, Rosa, being from Spain, was serious herself, in the way of her culture, and she taught us all a lot that year about our common faith as she learned about our country.

I knew from the moment Dad passed over on Monday morning that the Gospel passage from John, proclaimed today, had to be the Gospel for his funeral.  In that passage we hear Our Lord saying to His mother, Mary, “woman, behold your son,” and then to John, the beloved disciple, “behold, your mother”.  At about 4:10, Monday morning, Dad started to struggle a little.  Mom and I were near, and Mom got up and said to Dad, “It’s ok Ed.  Go!  Be with Jesus.  Be with Lori.”  He fussed a bit more and then Mom said, “the kid’s will take care of me, go.”  And he was gone.  How beautiful.  How like him.  He wouldn’t go until he was confident that Mom would be taken care of, until his task on earth was done.

Brothers & Sisters, the point of this life is to be conformed to Christ, to reflect the light of Christ; to live in Christ, to die in Christ, and to rise to new life in Christ.  May this be the legacy of my father who showed to me and to so many others by his actions “Our Father”; and profiting by his example may we, through the grace and mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and in the power of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, meet again in the eternal feast of Lamb Who has been slain and yet lives.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have mercy on him.

St. Mary, Pray for him.

St. Joseph, husband of Mary, Pray for him.

St. Joseph, the Workman, Pray for him.

St. Wenceslaus, Pray for him.

St. Edward the Confessor, Pray for him.

Blessed Solanus Casey, Pray for him.

All holy men and women, Pray for him.

In the name of the Father…

 

Savannah & Dustin Kenyon
Godchildren

Keith & Kristine Kenyon