St. John the Dwarf, Monk, (5th century)
St. Anstrudis, Virgin, (700)
St. Nothelm of Canterbury, Bishop, (740)
St. Hedwig of Poland, Queen and Widow, (1243)
Saints Martinian and Masimam of Africa, Martyrs, (458)
St. Gall, Monk, (635)
St. Teresa of Avila, Virgin, (1582)
St. Leonard of Vandoeuvre, Abbot, (580)
St. Thecla of Kitzengen, Virgin, (790)
God looked at everything He had made, and He found it very good.
As we walk through our readings and Gospel for the Solemnity of the Christian Family we should continually focus on the fact that God created everything good.
It is easy to loose that point. We can look at our lives, our jobs, relationships, politics, our fellow Christians, and wonder —“ if He made everything good, including His Church, why do things look so bad?
Starting at the first chapter of Genesis it is easy to see the good. The earth was clean, new, and beautiful. Man had not transgressed. Things were humming along.
It didn’t take long for that scene to break down. Man focused on what he wanted over and above what God wanted, and there you have it, sin.
As we read through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians we even begin to wonder about the Church. It starts off simple enough:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord.
and
Fathers, do not anger your children.
But then we get into this whole slave and master wording.
We get nervous —“ there’s a lot of history there, especially for us as citizens of the United States. We look at those words and we are struck with images that are painful, and fully loaded with repercussions that reverberate to this day.
We stop listening to what Paul writes and we replace his meaning and intent with our preconceived notions.
These difficult words have but one meaning.
As Christians we must do God’s will. God’s will and Jesus’ teaching are the only thing that matters.
Children are to obey their parents, not out of subjugation, but because they desire to live life the way God intends it to be lived.
Fathers are not to anger their children, not because they take a weak, comme ci comme í§a attitude towards their children’s behavior, but because they are to be fathers as the Lord God is our Father. Fathers are to train their children and instruct them as the Lord trains and instructs.
Being a master or slave is meaningless, and the institution of slavery is nothingness in light of the Kingdom of God.
Regardless of our state in life, our position, our relative degree of freedom as classified by the government, we are to live only as Christians.
Status, that is being a child, father, slave, or master, is all worthless classification. That classification only matters if we take our focus off our roles in the Christian family.
Brothers and sisters,
Now think for a moment.
Isn’t compromise our national motto? We all learned that the United States Constitution was developed in a spirit of compromise. Federalists, states rights, House and Senate, three part government, checks and balances. It all works out because people compromised.
The same thing happens in other life situations. Whether a project at work or school, what we’re serving for dinner, the running of the Parish Committee, or our domestic lives; regardless of the things that happen in life, we tend to focus on making peace and on compromising. We even misquote Jesus —“ the whole thing about being a peacemaker.
That, my friends, is peace at the cost of living the way God intends.
We loose by compromise. We break faith. We focus on what we want over and above what God wants. We sin.
What God created is God’s way. God’s way, the way He wants us to act, behave, worship, live, and believe is the perfect way. He looked at it and said it was good.
What God seeks, and the whole reason for His coming as man, was that God wants us to know and follow His way. He gave us the word, and showed us how to live it. He seeks the only reality that counts: man and God living together in complete harmony.
My brothers and sisters,
Jesus never saw compromise as an option.
Paul said that we must live life in accord with our baptism, as the Christian family.
Jesus didn’t tell the Pharisees that He saw their point. He didn’t tell adulterers that he understood their plight. He simply said, repent and follow Me. If you do that, you have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
When Mary and Joseph found Jesus sitting in the temple before the teachers, and questioned Him, He simply said:
—Why did you search for Me? Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house?—
Jesus told them —“ don’t you see, this is how things are supposed to be.
God created everything good, and asks us to live in unity with the way of life He personally taught us.
How we live, what we profess, what we do with our husbands, wives, children, co-workers, fellow parishioners, friends and enemies all has to be in accord with God’s way, without compromise or abandonment.
When He looks to us, the Christian people, the Christian family who maintain and follow His way, He will say:
‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’
Those will be the sweetest words we will ever hear, words so sweet they are worth any cost.
Amen.
St. Callistus of Rome, Bishop and Martyr, (222)
St. Justus of Lyons, Bishop, (390)
St. Angadrisma, Virgin, (695)
St. Edward the Confessor, King, (1066)
Saints Faustus, Januarius, and Martial, Martyrs, (304)
St. Coloman, Martyr, (1012)
St. Maximilian of Lorch, Bishop and Martyr, (284)
Saints Felix and Cyprian, Martyrs, (484)
St. Wilfred of York, Bishop, (709)
The Episcopal Bishop of Albany, NY issued a statement calling for unity amid the discord in the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Love is trying to hold together a diocese commonly known as a conservative. Today’s story from the Albany Times Union explains his thinking.
I found two things “interesting” in the article.
You can read the full thing at Bishop wants unity amid discord: Leader of Albany Episcopalians affirms opposition to same-sex unions and ordaining gay clergy
The interesting bits:
[Bishop William Love] also criticized the Episcopal Church for “creating a new class of victims — the traditional orthodox believers.
“If there is to be a turnaround in the Church, there must be a viable place for the conservative orthodox voice,” he wrote.
One of the keys to reasonableness is having something that everyone can agree on – like a creedal statement. Unfortunately, and sadly, the response to Bishop Love’s statement shows that key elements that are foundational for that sort of oneness do not exist.
Locally, one lay leader in the Albany diocese has a much different worry: that there is no place for the substantial progressive voice.
Marya Dodd describes herself as probably the only progressive on the Diocesan Council, an oversight panel. She says many people won’t donate money to the Albany diocese because they feel disenfranchised. She praised Love for “making a real effort to communicate with us” in the new letter but said that wasn’t enough.
“He’s not publicly recognizing the fact that there are a lot of different segments of the Episcopal Church represented in Albany,” she said. “This is not a diocese that has one vision, or one approach to the faith.
Emphasis added. ”
I think that it would be hard to find a parish, much less a Church, that did not have a variety of voices and opinions in it. It is funny what people believe, as made up in their own minds. However, in a Church, there are touchstones, markers as it were of unity. The Creed, sacraments, the definition and understanding of God, adherence to the totality of the faith, that is Scripture and Tradition. The folks who run the faith side of the house tend to preach that common understanding.
All of those are the check points. If the membership cannot agree on those key elements, or if they have to redefine them to suit their own purposes, they are not Church, just a bunch of folks who like to get together. But why
Even certain social clubs have a more defined set of beliefs or norms upon which their members agree.
Visions are fine, but if disconnected from the things which have defined the Church (of which you are a member) at least be honest enough to define your own “faith community.” Then again, isn’t that what seems to be happening.
Saints Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus, Martyrs, (304)
St. Canice, Abbot, (599)
St. Agilbert of Paris, Bishop, (685)
As the Young Fogey might point out, politics is about playing a game for influence and votes. It is rare to find politicos doing things for right and proper reason. He might also rightly point out that we should be careful so that we “don’t get played” in their political process.
Today’s vote by Congress on the Armenian Genocide was one of those rare moments when politicians (and yes I understand that some come from districts with large Armenian immigrant populations) did the right thing in the face of pressure.
They basically said to heck with lobbyists (paid for by the Turkish government), President Bush (it will hurt the “war on terror”), and tons of other politicos who pander to Turkey because they act as an errand boy between the Arabs and Israelis/Arabs and NATO.
Of course everyone realizes that Turkish “democracy” is a carefully contrived facade at best. Free speech – eh, no. Freedom of religion – eh, no. But for Mr. Bush at least, a half friend and untruth are more important than the truth – the ends justify the means.
From the NY Times: House Panel Raises Furor on Armenian Genocide
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 —” A House committee voted on Wednesday to condemn the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in World War I as an act of genocide, rebuffing an intense campaign by the White House and warnings from Turkey’s government that the vote would gravely strain its relations with the United States.
The vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee was nonbinding and so largely symbolic, but its consequences could reach far beyond bilateral relations and spill into the war in Iraq.
Turkish officials and lawmakers warned that if the resolution was approved by the full House, they would reconsider supporting the American war effort, which includes permission to ship essential supplies through Turkey and northern Iraq.
President Bush appeared on the South Lawn of the White House before the vote and implored the House not to take up the issue, only to have a majority of the committee disregard his warning at the end of the day, by a vote of 27 to 21.
—We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915,— Mr. Bush said in remarks that, reflecting official American policy, carefully avoided the use of the word genocide. —This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.—
The resolution, which was introduced early in the current session of Congress and which has quietly moved forward over the last few weeks, provoked a fierce lobbying fight that pitted the politically influential Armenian-American population against the Turkish government, which hired equally influential former lawmakers like Robert L. Livingston, Republican of Louisiana, and Richard A. Gephardt, the former Democratic House majority leader who backed a similar resolution when he was in Congress.
Backers of the resolution said Congressional action was overdue.
—Despite President George Bush twisting arms and making deals, justice prevailed,— said Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat of California and a sponsor of the resolution. —For if we hope to stop future genocides we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past…—
In a similar vein, Polish-Americans and Poles recall that in 1951-52 a Congressional investigation (the Madden Committee) into the Katyn Massacre (also here), documented much of the truth surrounding the enormity of the Katyn crimes committed by the Russians after the coordinated Nazi German – Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939
Sometimes Congress finds the wherewithal to shed some light on historic events.
Oh, and let the Turks react. What will they do? Kill more Christians, close more churches, invade Iraq, stop pretending to be a democracy…? They will bow because we can choke off those huge foreign aid payments that keep them quiet.