At Sea in the Caribbean

Diane and I are aboard the Jewel of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship of about 90,000 tons. We left Miami late on the afternoon of February 20, and so today is our fourth day aboard. At the moment we're somewhere south of Jamaica headed for Cartagena, Colombia, the Panama Canal, and other ports of call in the western Caribbean.

This is our first real pleasure cruise, although I've certainly spent a lot of time at sea. When I was just a lad, back around 1950, I sailed to Europe aboard the New Amsterdam, a Holland-American Line ship. Although it wasn't a pleasure cruise, I have some fond memories of that trip. My mother, brother and I were on our way to join my father, an Army officer stationed in Heidelberg, Germany. When we returned the next year we sailed on a former troop ship which wasn't nearly so pleasant. With those two exceptions, all of my time at sea has been aboard Navy ships, which were far from luxurious.

So far we've made one port stop, in Labadee, a peninsula on the north coast of Haiti. It's a rather strange place. The cruise line apparently leases it from the Haitian government and has turned it into a playground for their passengers. It has all the amenities: lovely beaches; all kinds of water sports and other forms of recreation; shops where one can buy local Haitian goods; and, of course, bars and dining facilities. All of this in an area isolated from the rest of Haiti, the poorest and most densely populated country in the Americas. The cruise passengers can't leave Labadee and very few Haitians can enter.

(The above photo shows Diane and me on the beach in Labadee, Haiti. I'm already looking a bit chubby thanks to the omnipresent shipboard food.)

This visit, then, has generated some mixed feelings. I suspect the money given to the Haitian regime goes nowhere but in the pockets of its corrupt officials. But some Haitians probably benefit from the arrangement, either through jobs or the sale of their cottage industry crafts and other products. On balance, however, I suspect it has little positive impact on the average Haitian and only enriches the regime and provides the cruise line with a cheap place to let their passengers relax ashore for a day. I've included a few photos so you can get a idea of what Labadee looks like,

The winds and the seas have picked up today and I'm guessing that we're experiencing 15-20 foot swells as a result of some pretty hefty trade winds out of the East. I'm actually sitting on the balcony of our stateroom, probably 75 feet above the water, enjoying the warm salt air and sound of the sea. And yet, despite the seas, the ship is remarkably stable and I had no trouble finding my sea-legs once again.

The ship has cellular service at sea along with a number of WiFi “hot spots” for Internet access. Of course, they charge for Internet access (they charge for everything) but it's not too unreasonable provided one doesn't spend a lot of time surfing the web. I've used it only for paying bills, checking email and posting on this blog. We also have satellite TV service so one can keep up with the world if brief isolation proves too painful.

I had forgotten how beautiful the sea is...and how awe-inspiring. At sea one can better appreciate the greatness of God's gifts to us. Watching the seemingly endless sea as our relatively tiny ship passes over it is not unlike the sensation one experiences when staring heavenward on a dark, star-lit night. Yes, God is great and, insignificant as we are in the face of His creation, we are blessed to be loved so much.

(The above photo of NE Haiti was taken early in the morning as we arrived at Labadee.)

Schmap Guides

You might have noticed that this blog now includes two city guides from Schmap, a travel guide website that provides all kinds of neat downloadable travel information on cities and countries throughout the world. For you techno-geeks out there, you can even download them to your iPhone.

I've included links to their Rome and Venice guides for two reasons: (1) Rome and Venice are two of my favorite cities; and (2) Schmap selected several of my photos for inclusion in these particular guides. So, I suppose the real reason is vanity.

I really do like their guides though. One of the reasons is their inclusion of so many photos taken by folks like you and me. Through these, mostly amateur, photos you get a real flavor of the city and its attractions. The guides are located at the bottom of the right sidebar of my blog. Enjoy!

My son is visiting and so it's off to swim with the Manatees over on the west coast of Florida in Homosassa. Should be interesting. I'll take photos.

Recordings of Flannery O'Connor

Some time ago a friend passed along a link to several audio recordings of Flannery O'Connor that were apparently made not long before her untimely death in August of 1964 from complications of Lupus. I have been trying to find some recordings of her voice for years, but could locate only brief soundbites apparently taken from longer recordings. For me, a long-time fan, these two recordings are a God-send.

O'Connor was, as you will discover when you hear her voice, a Southern girl; indeed, a very Southern girl, who spent much of her adult life on the family farm, Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia.

Her work is unique in American literature, and one recording is of her reading one of her better known stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The other is of a lecture she gave at the University of Notre Dame. Here are the links to the site where they can be downloaded:

O'Connor's Notre Dame Lecture on the "Grotesque in Southern Literature"

O'Connor reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

I hope you enjoy listening to this remarkable woman.

A few years ago, on one of our trips between New England and Florida, Diane and I spent some time in Milledgeville. Among the places we visited was Andalusia, where we met Mary Barbara Tate, a lovely woman who knew O'Connor well and graciously shared some of her experiences with us. She even gave me a lovely print of O'Connor's self-portrait painted in 1953 when she was in her late twenties. Below is a copy...
As always, I took dozens (hundreds?) of photographs during our visit and have included one of the farmhouse at Andalusia (below), which I recommend visiting if you're ever driving through Georgia and looking for something worthwhile to do. I also took a photo of her grave site in Milledgeville.

The equipment near the front steps would be used later that day for a lecture and reception we attended along with a surprisngly large number of other Flannery lovers.

Strength in Weakness

A busy schedule has prevented me from posting anything recently; and although my busyness hasn't really abated, I've decided to try to set aside at least a little time every few days for the blog. We'll see how faithful I turn out to be.

What caught my attention this morning was news out of Vietnam. I'd been loosely following the plight of the Church in Vietnam as it strives to do God's work of evangelization in this Communist-led nation. I've been particularly struck by the efforts of Redemptorist Father Matthew Vu Khoi Phung and Archbishop of Hanoi Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, as they wage what can only be described as a spiritual battle with the government. The current confrontation is related to an ongoing dispute over Church property, including a Redemptorist monastery and former papal nunciature, confiscated by the government years ago. The dispute has been marked by violence perpetrated by so-called street gangs (obviously encouraged by the government). These mobs have attacked the monastery, along with several churches, destroying statues, books, and whatever else they came across. Government complicity has been evident since all of these attacks were carried under the watchful eyes of the police who did nothing to stop them.

The Church's response to this ongoing government intimidation has consisted of peaceful protests and marches by thousands of Catholics, courageous statements and letters by the archbishop, and public prayer.

And then, on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the government staged a show trial of Father Matthew Vu Khoi Phung and seven other activists in which they were "convicted" of destroying public property in connection with one of their protests at the monastery. (Notice how those who destroyed Church property were not prosecuted. Totalitarian governments always value the state's property more than they value the property of their citizens.)

The wonderful thing about this trial was that the convictions resulted only in suspended sentences, an outcome the eight defendants attribute to the intercession of the Blessed Mother. Father Pierre Nguyen Van Khai, the only priest allowed to attend the 7-hour trial, reported that "judges, lawyers, defendants and all those attending the trial could hear very clearly thousands of Catholics protesting outside the courthouse, who kept yelling ‘Innocent, Innocent!'" The above photo shows Father Matthew rejoicing in what can only be called a victory despite the verdict.

The Church continues to be persecuted throughout the world, particularly in totalitarian states that cannot abide their citizens expressing loyalty to any power other than the state itself. Pray that the subtle persecution we have of late sometimes encountered in this country does not evolve into anything more sinister and pervasive.

For an interesting look at what's in store for the Church in Vietnam, click here.

God bless the courageous Catholics of Vietnam who, through their witness, have shown us the strength that comes from weakness.

Prayer: Father Jacques Philippe

I've wanted to mention these two books for several weeks now, but always seem to forget. Their author is Father Jacque Philippe, a priest of the Community of the Beatitudes. Both books are well worth reading and have helped me in my prayer life. I hope you find them as valuable as I have.

Interior Freedom and Time for God

For a little background and to get a brief glimpse into Father Philippe's approach to interior prayer, I suggest you read this interview on Xenit. In it Father Philippe discusses how true interior prayer differs from such practices as yoga or other types of meditiation common to many eastern religions.

White House Agenda

President Obama's official website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/, already lists a comprehensive agenda that our new president hopes to enact during his term in office. For those of you who might have doubted his support for abortion, gay-lesbian rights, embryonic stem cell research, and other similar issues, I suggest you go directly to the website and read exactly what his agenda includes:

For women's issues, including abortion and embryonic stem cell research, click here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/women/

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) issues are listed under "civil rights" and can be found here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/

And if you would like to read the text of President Obama's statement regarding his decision to rescind the previous executive order prohibiting government support for international agencies that promote abortion, click here.

President Obama, why aren't you pro-life?

Click here to view a video of a powerful pro-life ad using President Barack Obama as an example of a typical candidate for abortion, a child born into adverse circumstances.

Embryonic Stem Cell Clinical Trials

With suspiciously good timing, on January 23 the FDA approved the first human subject tests using embryonic stem cells. That this approval came the day after President Bush left office was surely not coincidental. Read here what the New York Times has to say about this move by the FDA.

Pope Benedict & YouTube

How cool is this? Pope Benedict XVI is now on YouTube. That's right, the Vatican is using the popular video website to get the Word out by posting several videos each day. Here's the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/vatican

According to the Xenit News Agency, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, stated that people throughout the world are "interested in the messages and proposals of a high level moral authority -- as the Pope is, and in general the Catholic Church -- regarding the great problems of the world today."

Father Federico went on to say, "That's why YouTube has been chosen as an adequate platform for being present on the Net, in one of the great Areopagus of communication in the world of today, and to be present regularly, to offer a reference point worthy of trust, and to continue beyond the many fragments of information about the Pope and the Vatican present on the Web in a rather more casual and sprawled-out way."

Enjoy!

The Abortion Irony

There's an element of tragic irony in President Obama's unqualified support for abortion at every stage of pregnancy. Our first African-American president has already begun to manifest that support by quietly issuing an executive order that lifted President Bush's ban on funding for international groups that promote abortion. The President issued the order on the 36th anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court's infamous Roe v. Wade decision.

The irony in all this -- and it's truly a tragic irony -- is that abortion has decimated the African-American community, the community historically targeted by the abortion industry. It's no accident that Margaret Sanger's openly racist views formed the foundational policies of Planned Parenthood, the organization she founded. This is one of the "open secrets" that nobody talks about but everybody involved recognizes. One would think the President would recognize it as well; but perhaps he, like so many on the American left, prefers to repress any truths that conflict with his worldview. And one of these shocking truths is that the leading cause of death in the African-American community since 1973 is, you guessed it, abortion!

For a brief overview of the disastrous effects of abortion on the African-American community, read this article by Star Parker and Gary Bauer. And for a more thorough discussion of the issue, visit the website of the National Black Catholic Congress.

The Vatican responded almost immediately, criticizing the President's executive order and calling it a "harsh blow not only to us Catholics but to all the people across the world who fight against the slaughter of innocents..." The US Bishops joined the Vatican in its criticism of this early confirmation of the new administration's pro-abortion policies.

Pray for our President, for our nation, and for the innocents who continue to suffer in this holocaust.

Annual Blessing of the Lambs of St. Agnes

Yesterday, January 21, was the feast day of St. Agnes, a young girl barely in her teens, who gave her life for her faith in the early 4th Century. Because her name, Agnes, means lamb, it is also the day when the Holy Father, in her honor, blesses two lambs. As you can see in the photo, the lambs are given special treatment, and each even wears a garland of flowers on its head.

The wool from these lambs will be used to make the pallium, a stole-like vestment which the Holy Father will give to new Metropolitan Archbishops. The pallium, is a papal vestment that the Pope gives to archbishops to wear as a sign of their pastoral authority and it typifies their participation in the supreme pastoral power of the pope, who concedes it to them for their proper church.

Interestingly, although the pallium is now reserved, by law and liturgical norms, to metropolitan archbishops, a single exception has become customary: Pope John Paul II conferred a pallium on then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when the cardinal became dean of the College of Cardinals and therefore also Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, a purely honorary title and one without an archbishopric or metropolitanate attached. When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI, he continued that exception by conferring the pallium on Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the new dean.

The wool of the two lambs is given to the Benedictine nuns who reside in the monastery adjacent to the Basilica of St. Cecilia in the Trastevere section of Rome. The nuns then use the wool to make each pallium the Pope presents during the upcoming year. By the way, St. Cecilia is a must see if you go to Rome. When you go there be sure to visit the crypt and St. Cecilia's tomb as well as the excavations of her family's home -- all located right beneath the present basilica.

I took the above photo of St. Cecilia's in September when Diane and I visited Rome. The basilica is in the center, surrounded by the monastery. The below photo is of the statue of St. Cecilia in death displayed under the main altar.

And all this because little 12-year-old Agnes gave her life protecting her virtue and out of tremendous love for Our Lord. If you go to Rome, you will find two churches dedicated to St. Agnes: St. Agnes Outside the Walls which claims to have the martyrs body; and St. Agnes in Agony, located in touristy Piazza Navona right behind Bernini's famous Rivers Fountain. The latter church claims to have her head. It would seem St. Agnes is the perfect example of "divide and conquer."

St. Agnes pray for us.

March for Life

Today, on the 36th anniversary of the US Supreme Court's infamous Roe v. Wade decision, several hundred thousand people will march in Washington DC in support of the right to life for all human beings. Just days after the inauguration of our 44th president, an event that received unprecedented media attention, the annual March for Life will most likely be ignored by the mainstream media. I also suspect that our new president, despite his oft-stated intention to reach out in an effort to unite all Americans, will greet those who support life with nothing more than total silence.

Nellie Gray, the tireless president of the March for Life organization, sent President Obama a personal invitation to address those who will participate in the march. To read the invitation, which also clearly outlines the pro-life movement's guiding principles, click here.

Pray for those who will march today. Pray for our president, that he may experience a radical change of heart. Pray for our Congress, that it will reject any attempt to pass the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Pray that the American people will come to an understanding of what is at stake, that they will reclaim their sovereignty and instruct their elected representatives and senators to protect human life at every stage from conception until natural death. And in all things let us pray buoyed by hope, by the hope that comes from the sure knowledge that the Author of Life will always triumph.

Sure is Easier Being a Catholic

One of the more interesting questions bouncing around DC these days relates to where the Obama family will end up going to church on Sundays. It would seem that the new president will have many options, and it will be interesting to see which he selects. The pundants are all waiting for him to decide so they can speculate on the "political" reasons behind his decision.

That's the nice thing about being a Catholic. Canon Law tells us to worship at our local parish, the one whose boundaries we live within. This, of course, is a law not often followed these days as many Catholics prefer to shop around for a parish that "better addresses their needs."

Anyway, here's the text of a column that appeared in the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal on January 16, 2009. It was written by Mark Tooley who directs the United Methodist program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington.

_________________

Where Will the Obamas Worship?

By Mark Tooley

Where will President Barack Obama attend church in Washington? Thanks to revelations about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC) in Chicago, Mr. Obama's church shopping requires more careful political contemplation than a new president typically needs. But his ultimate choice likely will be a noncontroversial church, suitable for young children, with a brief commute and tightly scheduled worship that gets the president back home early on Sunday mornings.

Even so, Washington provides such a wealth of opportunities that more factors than those will come into play. Mr. Obama's own background could point him in several possible directions. His mother, Ann Dunham, was a spiritual seeker drawn to many religions. Both of her husbands were nominal Muslims. Mr. Obama's maternal grandparents were Unitarians.

Mr. Obama's early Chicago activism took him to Trinity. At an altar call, he professed faith in Christ. Trinity is a black congregation within the nearly all white 1.2 million United Church of Christ. Although it originated with New England's Puritans, the UCC has mostly shed its strict Calvinism of past centuries and arguably is America's most liberal mainline Protestant denomination.

A UCC church in Washington could be a comfortable fit for a former member of Chicago's Trinity. Trinity's social liberalism -- on issues of gay rights and abortion rights, for instance -- is more like that of other UCC congregations than of historically black denominations, which typically are theologically conservative. The 2.5 million member African Methodist Episcopal Church, for instance, voted unanimously in 2004 to prohibit same-sex unions. Pastor Wright's flamboyant preaching style echoes that seen in many black churches. But his radicalized Social Gospel more resembles that of white mainline Protestants.

Mr. Obama seems to share the cool rationalism of the UCC's liberal New England roots more than the evangelistic and emotive black church tradition. Talking to the Chicago Sun-Times about his faith in 2004, he cited his "suspicion of dogma" and "too much certainty," and said he preferred a "dose of doubt" in religion. Somewhat deflecting questions about prayer, Jesus and the afterlife, Mr. Obama defined sin as "being out of alignment with my values."

In 2007, Mr. Obama addressed the UCC's governing synod. "Doing the Lord's work is a thread that's run through our politics since the very beginning," he told an enthusiastic audience of 9,000. Despite Mr. Obama's resignation from Trinity after the Wright controversy, John Thomas, president of the UCC, wrote to him after his November win, speaking of the denomination's pride and hope in the president-elect and offering him the "hospitality" of its congregations in Washington.

All this suggests that Mr. Obama could choose one of the UCC's seven churches in the nation's capital, two of which are predominantly black. Or, will he gravitate instead to one of the city's historically black denominations in a majority black city? Whatever denomination attracts him, will he choose a white or racially diverse church?

The guessing game has been going on for a while now, but it often ignores the importance of location and duration. Presidential churches usually lie within one short mile of the White House, and have short, one-hour services. Typical black-church worship is longer. Newly inaugurated George W. Bush learned this when he attended an exuberant two-hour service at a black congregation on Capitol Hill. Though he is a Methodist, Bush settled on convenient St. John's Episcopal, one block from the White House.

Time magazine has suggested that President Obama might attend the multiracial Church of the Epiphany, only three blocks away, noting that several members of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet worshiped there. But perhaps Time forgot that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was also a regular at Epiphany in the days before the Civil War. Now liberal and socially progressive, Church of the Epiphany nevertheless uses a liturgy that may seem too formal for Mr. Obama, accustomed to the UCC's minimal use of ritual.

So, how about First Congregational UCC, where Calvin Coolidge worshiped? Only six blocks from the White House, it was founded by abolitionists, is liberal politically, and has a multiracial congregation. But the old sanctuary is being replaced with a glass office building, whose ground floor will house worship in the future. President Obama may prefer a more settled venue.

If so, he could worship at Grace Reformed UCC, where Teddy Roosevelt attended services, just seven blocks away. The stately original sanctuary is now surrounded by a neighborhood of hip, condo-owning yuppies. A special room displays Roosevelt relics, and undoubtedly the church would like to add some artifacts of a more recent president to its collection.

A few blocks closer to the White House stands the imposing Washington City Church, which Lyndon Johnson frequented. Part of the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), its nonritualistic, low-church worship resembles the UCC's. The church hosts annual rallies by liberal evangelical Jim Wallis, a strong Obama promoter.

Mr. Obama probably is not likely to attend Foundry United Methodist, where the Clintons worshiped (and whose then-pastor defended Bill during Monicagate). But nearby is First Baptist, where Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter prayed. More liberal than most Baptist churches, it has a female interim pastor.

If Mr. Obama prefers a black congregation, Asbury United Methodist Church, just seven blocks from the White House, promises a 55-minute, 8:30 a.m. service. Like Chicago's Trinity, Asbury is a black church in a 90% white denomination. But Asbury's clergy are traditional black preachers who mostly avoid controversy. And it touts a popular Sunday school that might suit Mr. Obama's daughters well.My prediction? Even closer to the White House is New York Avenue Presbyterian, where Abraham Lincoln's original pew still sits. In Lincoln's day, the church was nonpolitical and traditionalist. Today, its liberal perspective might suit Mr. Obama well. And sitting where the Great Emancipator often sat might provide symbolism and inspiration that are impossible for the new president to resist.

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Another Pro-Abortion Kennedy?

Just what we need, another pro-abortion Kennedy in Congress to further confuse and scandalize the faithful. What follows was wrtitten by Anne Hendershott, professor of urban studies at The King's College in New York. She is the author of "The Politics of Abortion" (Encounter Books, 2007). It appeared in the Wall Street Journal's Opinon Journal on January 2, 2009.

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For faithful Roman Catholics, the thought of yet another pro-choice Kennedy positioned to campaign for the unlimited right to abortion is discouraging. Yet if Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of Catholics John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton, abortion-rights advocates will have just such a champion.

Ms. Kennedy was so concerned to assure pro-abortion leaders in New York, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Dec. 18, that on the same day Ms. Kennedy telephoned New York Gov. David Patterson to declare interest in the Senate seat, "one of her first calls was to an abortion rights group, indicating she will be strongly pro-choice."

Within the first week of her candidacy, Ms. Kennedy promised to work for several causes, including same-sex marriage and abortion rights. In responding to a series of 15 questions posed by the New York Times on Dec. 21, Ms. Kennedy said that, while she believes "young women facing unwanted pregnancies should have the advice of caring adults," she would oppose legislation that would require minors to notify a parent before obtaining an abortion. On the crucial question of whether she supports any state or federal restrictions on late-term abortions, Ms. Kennedy chose to say only that she "supports Roe v. Wade, which prohibits third trimester abortions except when the life or health of the mother is at risk." Presumably Ms. Kennedy knows that this effectively means an unlimited right to abortion -- including late-stage abortion -- because the "health of the mother" can be so broadly defined that it includes the psychological distress that can accompany an unintended pregnancy.

Ms. Kennedy's commitment to abortion rights is shared by other prominent family members, including Kerry Kennedy Cuomo and Maryland's former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Some may recall the 2000 Democratic Convention when Caroline and her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, addressed the convention to reassure all those gathered that the Democratic Party would continue to provide women with the right to choose abortion -- even into the ninth month. At that convention, the party's nominee, Al Gore, formerly a pro-life advocate, pledged his opposition to parental notification and embraced partial-birth abortion. Several of those in attendance, including former President Bill Clinton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, had been pro-life at one time. But by 2000 nearly every delegate in the convention hall was on the pro-choice side -- and those who weren't simply kept quiet about it.

Caroline Kennedy knows that any Kennedy desiring higher office in the Democratic Party must now carry the torch of abortion rights throughout any race. But this was not always the case. Despite Ms. Kennedy's description of Barack Obama, in a New York Times op-ed, as a "man like my father," there is no evidence that JFK was pro-choice like Mr. Obama. Abortion-rights issues were in the fledgling stage at the state level in New York and California in the early 1960s. They were not a national concern.

Even Ted Kennedy, who gets a 100% pro-choice rating from the abortion-rights group Naral, was at one time pro-life. In fact, in 1971, a full year after New York had legalized abortion, the Massachusetts senator was still championing the rights of the unborn. In a letter to a constituent dated Aug. 3, 1971, he wrote: "When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception."

But that all changed in the early '70s, when Democratic politicians first figured out that the powerful abortion lobby could fill their campaign coffers (and attract new liberal voters). Politicians also began to realize that, despite the Catholic Church's teachings to the contrary, its bishops and priests had ended their public role of responding negatively to those who promoted a pro-choice agenda.

In some cases, church leaders actually started providing "cover" for Catholic pro-choice politicians who wanted to vote in favor of abortion rights. At a meeting at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Mass., on a hot summer day in 1964, the Kennedy family and its advisers and allies were coached by leading theologians and Catholic college professors on how to accept and promote abortion with a "clear conscience."

The former Jesuit priest Albert Jonsen, emeritus professor of ethics at the University of Washington, recalls the meeting in his book "The Birth of Bioethics" (Oxford, 2003). He writes about how he joined with the Rev. Joseph Fuchs, a Catholic moral theologian; the Rev. Robert Drinan, then dean of Boston College Law School; and three academic theologians, the Revs. Giles Milhaven, Richard McCormick and Charles Curran, to enable the Kennedy family to redefine support for abortion.

Mr. Jonsen writes that the Hyannisport colloquium was influenced by the position of another Jesuit, the Rev. John Courtney Murray, a position that "distinguished between the moral aspects of an issue and the feasibility of enacting legislation about that issue." It was the consensus at the Hyannisport conclave that Catholic politicians "might tolerate legislation that would permit abortion under certain circumstances if political efforts to repress this moral error led to greater perils to social peace and order."

Father Milhaven later recalled the Hyannisport meeting during a 1984 breakfast briefing of Catholics for a Free Choice: "The theologians worked for a day and a half among ourselves at a nearby hotel. In the evening we answered questions from the Kennedys and the Shrivers. Though the theologians disagreed on many a point, they all concurred on certain basics . . . and that was that a Catholic politician could in good conscience vote in favor of abortion."

But can they now? There are signs today that some of the bishops are beginning to confront the Catholic politicians who consistently vote in favor of legislation to support abortion. Charles J. Chaput, the archbishop of Denver, has been on the front lines in encouraging Catholics to live their faith without compromise in the public square. Most recently in his book "Render Unto Caesar," Archbishop Chaput has reminded Catholic politicians of their obligation to protect life.

The archbishop is not alone. The agenda at November's assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops included a public discussion of abortion and politics. The bishops' final statement focused on concern about the possible passage of the "Freedom of Choice Act," and referred to it as "an evil law that would further divide our country." The bishops referenced their 2007 document, "Faithful Citizenship," which maintains that the right to life is the foundation of every other human right. In it, they promised to "persist in the duty to counsel, in the hope that the scandal of their [Catholic congregants'] cooperating in evil can be resolved by the proper formation of their consciences."

Whether the bishops truly will persist remains to be seen. New York's Cardinal Edward Egan, for instance, has not publicly challenged Ms. Kennedy's pro-choice promises. This is unfortunate. Until the clerics begin to counter the pro-choice claims made by high-profile Catholics such as Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and, now, Caroline Kennedy, faithful Catholics will continue to be bewildered by their pastoral silence.

___________________

Pray that our bishops will have the courage to confront this scandal head-on.

Sad News: Richard John Neuhaus

We lost a remarkable man yesterday. Father Richard John Neuhaus went home to the Father at the age of 72. We will miss him.

Fr. Neuhaus was so many things, all of which he did so very well. Social activist, intellectual, brilliant writer and editor, uncompromising advocate for life, ecumenist, EWTN commentator -- he was all these things, but he was above all a priest and a man of faith.

I met Father Neuhaus only once, perhaps ten years ago, when he addressed a Diocese of Fall River pro-life conference held at North Dartmouth., Massachusetts. I spoke with him only briefly, for maybe five minutes, but consider myself greatly honored to have had that opportunity to meet him and thank him for his prophetic words and moral guidance. As you might expect, he was very kind and actually seemed interested in what I had to say.

But my first encounter with Father Neuhaus was through his writings, primarily through First Things, the journal he founded along with its predecessor. (That was so long ago I can't recall the name of the earlier journal.) Since then he has been my companion and, more often than not, my guide in things political, cultural, moral and ecumenical. Indeed, just the other day, in a conversation with a friend, I remarked that if I were suddenly impoverished and had to cancel all my many subscriptions, I could do so easily...except for one: First Things. I need my monthly Richard Neuhaus fix, not to mention all the other knowledgeable and stimulating writers whose work populates the pages of First Things. Through those pages I was introduced to R. R. Reno, Robert Wilken, David Bentley Hart and many others who have had such a positive influence on the development of my own thinking. And through his journal Father Neuhaus also provided the perfect venue for the theological commentary of Avery Cardinal Dulles, America's greatest theologian. And now, in the space of less than one month, we have lost both of these remarkable men. (Cardinal Dulles died on December 12.)

Father Neuhaus, who had earlier experienced the nearness of death, was comfortable with the inevitability of the end of this life. The following quote is from his article, "Born Toward Dying," originally published in the February 2000 issue of First Things.

"We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well. Most of us are at ease in discussing what makes for a good life, but we typically become tongue-tied and nervous when the discussion turns to a good death. As children of a culture radically, even religiously, devoted to youth and health, many find it incomprehensible, indeed offensive, that the word “good” should in any way be associated with death. Death, it is thought, is an unmitigated evil, the very antithesis of all that is good.

"Death is to be warded off by exercise, by healthy habits, by medical advances. What cannot be halted can be delayed, and what cannot forever be delayed can be denied. But all our progress and all our protest notwithstanding, the mortality rate holds steady at 100 percent."

This is perhaps the best thing we can say in tribute to Father Neuhaus: He lived well and he died well. May he rest in the peace of the Father's embrace.

Mass Psychosis

What a world humanity has created for itself. That, of course, is the problem: we have tried to create our own world instead of living in the world God created for us. Unfortunately, unless we manage to recover our collective sanity, the result will be nothing less than the collapse of our civilization. I believe this collapse could well occur soon and quickly. Although civilizations can take centuries to develop, their ultimate collapse can occur virtually overnight.

Now, whenever I ventilate these thoughts in polite company I usually get that "here he goes again" look. It's okay, I expect it, because nobody likes to be told that everything they hold dear might soon disappear. Nobody likes to consider the possibility that the society they live in, that the good ol' USA, is moving into the final stage of decadence. Complacency and comfort go hand in hand and ensure such unsettling thoughts are quickly suppressed. An even greater obstacle, though, is a kind of postmodern egoism that won't allow the possibility that progress might not be the inevitable movement of humanity. This egoism is so strongly ingrained that even a confrontation with the facts of history has no impact.

Yes, we moderns have progressed so very well these past 100 years, haven't we? Let's see; how many hundreds of millions have we murdered and maimed since 1914? And what were some of our motives for committing these crimes?

"Oh, you say you don't agree with our theory of history and progress? So sorry...Bang! You're dead."

Or "You believe that the glorious leader of our people is actually a vicious, murderous dictator? How unenlightened of you...Here's a one-way ticket to our 'reeducation facility'."

Or "You're a Jew? In that case, you have a problem, and we have the solution."

Or "Yes, ours is a 'religion of peace' which is why we devote ourselves exclusively to terrorizing anyone who believes otherwise."

Or "Pardon me, little unborn person, while I cut you to pieces or suck your brains out of your skull...but, really, your birth would be extremely inconvenient right now."

Have we become so jaded, so inured to this kind of institutional violence and the thinking that spawns it, that we are unable to recognize the world's death spiral? And has this blindness caused us to confuse evil with good? Apparently so. This very week, for example, an indignant world is raising its collective voice against Israel for finally deciding to defend itself against neighboring Gaza, a strange little piece of land ruled by Hamas, a self-proclaimed and widely recognized terrorist organization. These terrorists, by the way, have been attacking Israel almost daily for years. And so, naturally, the world has turned the terrorists into victims and the defenders into aggressors. Go figure.

Actually, we can figure...because it all started centuries ago. I'm not enough of a historian or philosopher to pinpoint a specific incident or person, but my guess is that one culprit was the nominalism that arose toward the end of the Middle Ages, a philosophy that denied the existence of universals and ultimately led to a denial of anything that cannot be perceived by the senses. This, in turn, led to the denial of any kind of transcendence, any kind of absolute truth. And so, modern man, like the sneering Pilate, can stand in the presence of his God and ask insolently, "What is truth?" He can do this because he no longer believes in anything beyond himself. And he certainly doesn't believe in something as absurd as original sin.

Yes, despite his destructive habits, our evolved modern man considers himself naturally good. Any defects he might occasionally exhibit can be cured by education or social programs; he certainly has no need of religion. Like the rationalists who preceded him, he sees no point in asking such questions as, "Why are we here?" After all, if we are merely the evolved products of an unthinking nature, such a question is meaningless. And the idea that man is created in God's image can now safely be rejected, for modern man sees himself as a materialistic, consuming, wealth seeking animal.

All of this has led to a sort of mass psychosis in which most people seem to possess an unassailable optimism in the midst of all this decadence, alienation and violence. Unlike the long-term optimism of the Christian, an optimism that stems from a fervent faith in the promises of a loving God, this is the blind optimism of those who are totally convinced of man's continuing progress. It is blind because it refuses to acknowledge the extraordinary brutality, perversions and dishonesty of our times. It also ignores the fact that these evils are increasing, not decreasing, over time. Few of us are immune, for this mass psychosis has even infected many who claim to be Christians and yet live as if they are modern materialists. They apparently repress the fact that we can't be Christians and live in a way that rejects the fundamental tenets of our faith.

And yet, despite my belief that our civilization is crumbling around us, I also believe that out of this will come a true Christian moment. Evil and discord cannot be sustained because they carry within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Yes, we Christians will continue to suffer persecution; after all, persecution is one of Jesus' promises. But He also promised to be with us always, even to the end of time; and so persecution will always lead to a renewal of the Faith. This is the optimism of the Christian, an optimism based on the historical record of God's continuous care for His people from the time of Abraham until the present day. How different from the hysterical optimism, the mass psychosis of today's materialists who, to maintain their faith in themselves, are forced to deny the truth.

"Be not afraid," Jesus commanded us. Listen to Him.

Christmas Busyness & Birthday Gifts for Jesus

I suppose we can all agree that the Christmas Season is certainly a busy time of the year; indeed, sometimes a bit too busy. So much of our busyness stems from activities and concerns that actually have little to do with the reality of Christmas. It seems instead to be driven by what Christmas has become. Our secular society has pretty well succeeded in its transformation of the Christmas holy day into the winter holiday. Perhaps the best measure of its success is the fact that just speaking the word "Christmas" in the public square is now the height, or rather the depth, of political incorrectness.

Of course, from a secular perspective, it makes perfect sense. The secular world generally measures the value of any nation by its economic health, and things haven't been looking too good lately. And so all of that holiday spending will do nothing but help a sluggish economy. Our secular society knows that if people focus too much on the religious aspects of Christmas, if they try to return the season to its original holiness, they just might question why they're spending all this money on so many frivolous things. And we certainly can't have that!

That very thought crossed my mind as Diane and I opened our few presents on Christmas Eve after the vigil Mass. I even took it a step farther and wondered when this tradition of giving Christmas gifts to each other actually began. Does anyone know? When you think about it, it's really a rather odd tradition. After all, I don't give my brother a birthday gift on my wife's birthday, so why do we give each other gifts on Jesus' birthday? How many of us even consider giving Jesus a gift?

Apparently, if my experience this Christmas is any indication, quite a few people did exactly that. For example, one of our daughters did. She and her husband gave us a goat! OK, we didn't actually get the goat, for which I am exceedingly grateful. No, they bought a goat in our name and the animal will be given to a poor family in Latin America. What a wonderful gift! But it's less a gift for Diane and me, and more a gift for Jesus. One need only read Matthew 25 to come to that conclusion.

But that's not all. Diane is the Thursday cook at our Wildwood Soup Kitchen, and so this year, with Christmas falling on a Thursday, she and I were up before dawn to get things going at the kitchen. Diane gave most of our regular Thursday crew the day off because so many others had asked if they could help. We ended up with about 25 people volunteering to assist during the six hours it took to prepare and serve the Christmas meal. And so, here are 25 more people who gave Jesus a wonderful birthday gift, the gift of their time and service.

And there are more. Art and Karen (I won't give their last name since they're the kind of people who prefer to stay well under the radar) took Diane to Sam's Club and let her spend over $900 for food to be used during the Christmas Season. In Art's words, "It's not from me. It's from Jesus." I know exactly what he meant by that, but it was also a gift to Jesus.

On Christmas Day some fellow volunteers, Ed and Rosemary, gave us $200 to buy some last-minute additions to the Christmas menu. And yesterday a retired priest friend, Father Bill, handed me a check for $1,000 to add to the soup kitchen kitty. A few days earlier a local company sent me an email through the soup kitchen's website and asked me to come by and pick up a check for $2,000. One of our drivers and his wife (in addition to the meals served in-house, the soup kitchen delivers over 100 meals daily) gave us a Christmas check for $500...and the list goes on and on.

Quite simply, all of these people gave birthday gifts to Jesus. They saw Jesus in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger...and some gave relatively large gifts, but many gave the modern equivalent of the widow's mite. Many of our guests, for example, folks who live in real poverty, quietly put a donation in the small wooden donation box at the soup kitchen. And in most instances, I know they gave from their need not from their surplus.

And so perhaps we need to realign our priorities at this time of year and do a little Christmas shopping for Jesus. I have no idea how much the average family spends on Christmas gifts, but if we all cut that spending in half and gave the saved half to Jesus as a birthday gift, I expect we'd end up doing an awful lot of good in the world.

And don't forget to praise God today and thank Him for giving you life!

Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas

The Pope on Christmas. Here's a link to the Holy Father's address at his weekly audience -- December 17 -- in which he takes up the theme of Christmas as an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of our existence.

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The following is my homily for this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Advent - Year B:

For children Christmas is always a time of surprises. Growing up in my family the surprises began when we returned home from church on the first Sunday of Advent. My mother would hang up advent calendars, and every day for the next four weeks we’d each get to open one of the little windows and be surprised by what was behind it. Ah, yes, we were simple little souls.

And what about surprise snowfalls, the ones we prayed for? How great it was to wake up to a world transformed by a thick white blanket.

My dad surprised us every year with a huge Christmas tree, anywhere from 12 to 18 feet high. But a tree like that was expensive, so Dad would wait until about a week before Christmas when the dealers would sell it at half price. And every year, just when we thought we’d never get a tree, he'd show up with an enormous one tied to the roof of the car.

Our mom would decorate the house with all sorts of wonderful things that had been in the family for generations. It was always the same, but a surprise nonetheless. And I can still remember my surprise when my parents decided I was old enough to attend Midnight Mass. I think I made it through the offertory. Then there was the surprise of Christmas morning. The opening of the presents. And not just our own, but watching my parents’ surprise as they opened the remarkably useless gifts we had given them.

Yes, Christmas has always been a time of surprises, and rightly so, because the Incarnation itself was a surprise. We even see this manifested in the Old Testament in some of the earliest hints of a Messiah. Today's first reading is a good example.

King David, experiencing a respite from warfare, starts thinking about how he's living in a splendid cedar palace, and yet God’s tabernacle is still housed in a tent; and so he decides to build a temple for God.But that evening, God speaks to the prophet, Nathan, and instructs him to "Go back to David and tell him he is not to build a temple for Me. Rather, I will build a house for him, and David's son will build the temple."

What a surprise this must have been for David. And what a house the Lord would build for him. For from that house, God promised to raise up an heir, a King of Kings."I will be a Father to Him," God tells David, "and He shall be a Son to Me. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever…" Though David doesn't say it, much like Mary in the Gospel, his attitude is: "Do to me according to Your word; whatever You say, Lord."

But God had more surprises in store for His people. A thousand years later, the Jewish people, suffering under Roman occupation and rule, still cling to God's promise to David. God had promised them a king, so they watched and they waited, looking for the one who would rise up and restore Israel to its former glory. Perhaps they should have known better. For God had promised a kingdom that would endure forever, surely no earthly kingdom. But they believed what they wanted to believe.

Once again God takes the world by surprise and brings a very different kind of King into the world, in a way no one could ever expect. He chooses a poor, teenage girl, from a tiny village in a remote corner of occupied Palestine, a backwater of the Roman Empire. And to announce His surprise to the world, to reveal the mystery He had kept secret for endless ages, He sends His archangel Gabriel.

Talk about a surprise! Try to imagine how Mary must have felt.Suddenly, this humble young woman, barely out of childhood, is face to face with this magnificent heavenly being. And it's not a social visit.

"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."What is she to make of this greeting? "Full of grace," he calls her, no room within her for anything else but God's saving grace. For God has prepared the Mother of His Son for all eternity and made her unique among humanity -- sinless, immaculately conceived, the only vessel worthy of His Son. But Mary doesn't know this yet. Is she afraid? Probably. So Gabriel takes pains to reassure her, and calls her by name:"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." And with this any fear she might have experienced suddenly evaporates, overwhelmed by God's love for her.

Then the great surprise, the unthinkable, God's secret revealed at last -- not to prophets or kings or theologians, but to this simple, Jewish girl."You will conceive and bear a Son, and you shall name Him, Jesus -- Savior."

That's not all. God piles surprise upon surprise. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His Kingdom there will be no end."

Now Mary, like any Jewish girl of the time, had been exposed to the Hebrew Scriptures -- the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms – and knew exactly what this meant: the thousand years of waiting were over. God's promise was fulfilled. But she was a virgin. So how can this be, she asks Gabriel.

His answer is even more startling than the question, an answer that reveals everything. Another surprise:"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."

It couldn't be clearer. She would bear God's Son. God's Son would be her son.The Father doesn’t command this of Mary. Rather, He gives her a choice, and awaits her answer. Not only God, but the whole world, the entire span of human history, awaits Mary’s answer. For in that decisive moment, God places the salvation of the human race, past, present and future, in her tiny hands. She need utter only one word to embrace the living Word of God in her womb.Her response, straight from the heart, brings a sigh of joy from all creation: “Let it be done to me according to Your word.”

It is a choice of total abandonment to God’s Will. Mary trusted and believed. She said “Yes” to God’s Word and acted on it.

And so, what does Mary offer us in these final days of advent? She shows us how to receive Christ, for He comes to us every day. He comes to us as He first came into the world, in poverty and powerlessness.

This is not pious rhetoric, but God's Word. Jesus comes to us in the hungry, the homeless stranger; in the sick, the imprisoned. Mary saw that even before Her Son proclaimed it. In her Magnificat, her song of joy after Gabriel’s glad tidings, Mary rejoices that God has lifted up the lowly and filled the hungry with good things.

The hungers of the human family still cry out to us: hunger for bread; hunger for freedom from persecution; hunger for peace; hunger for God.It's more than a human cry; it's a cry from the Gospel itself, from God's own Word. And as Jesus’ disciples, we have no choice but to listen to that Word and act on it in the circumstances in which God places us.

One thing is certain: God isn’t telling us to do nothing. Just as He gave Mary a choice, He gives us a choice, the same choice the Apostles made when Jesus said, “Come, follow me.”It's a choice founded on the certainty of God’s promise of eternal life. It's a choice founded on faith and hope, the hope of Jesus’ return when He comes in power and glory. For this is the other Advent we celebrate today.

The good news is in another promise: the promise of Jesus given to the Apostles at the Last Supper: “Whoever loves me will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

So, you see, brothers and sisters, Christ wants to dwell within us, to make us God-bearers like Mary, so we can carry Him to others.With Christ deep within you, and seeing Christ all around you, your life can become a ceaseless Advent, a visible sign to the world of His surprising love.All you have to do is join with Mary’s voice and say, “Whatever you say, Lord.”

And do you know something else? It’s never too late. He continues to call us to Him all the days of our lives…and He's full of surprises…for as Gabriel reminded Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Avery Cardinal Dulles, Rest in Peace

Like many Christians, for much of my life I have plodded along doing what I believed, often mistakenly, to be God's will for me. Too often I discovered well after the fact that what I believed God wanted for me was instead what I wanted and nothing more. And so, each time, buoyed by one of these little revelations, I would try to make a "mid-course correction" to redirect my life along the narrow path. This, I think, is how life unfolds for most of us as we make our way to the hoped-for eternal life promised by Jesus Christ.

Among those little revelations I received was the realization that most of our activity as human beings is really not all that important. This, of course, contradicts everything that the world tells us. For example, companies go to extremes to convince employees that the work they do is not only critical to the continuance of the human race, but may also be their only true source of happiness. A few years ago, in a Saturday morning management meeting, the vice president I then worked for expressed his dismay that we did not all share his unbridled passion for our work and our company. He believed that nothing was more important and if we truly loved our work it would be the primary focus of our lives, worth investing 12 hours a day, six days a week...or more! Perhaps the only true response to such thinking is, "Get a life! Get an eternal life!" It's not our work that's important; it's God work. And it's God's work that we should be doing. Our work pays the bills. God's work paves the road to eternal life.

One person who devoted his life to doing God's work was Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., who returned to the Father last Friday, December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was 90 years old.

In the course of a life, if one is fortunate, he may have the opportunity to meet some truly extraordinary people, people whom God has chosen to do extraordinary things. For me, one of those people was Cardinal Dulles. For years I had encountered him through his writings, and he probably influenced my thinking on things theological more than other man with the possible exceptions of Pope Benedict XVI and Jean Cardinal Danielou. Not only did I learn from Avery Dulles but I also truly enjoyed reading him.

And then, two years ago, I actually met him. Cardinal Dulles had come to our diocese to speak at a diocesan synod gathering, and before he spoke I had the opportunity to chat with him for about 15 minutes. As you can see by the accompanying photo, I was probably a bit more enthusiastic about the meeting than was the cardinal.

Actually, he was very kind. We chatted about our common experience as naval officers, about my time at Georgetown University, and about a recent article he had written for First Things. He proved to be everything I expected him to be: warm, pleasant, unassuming, and truly interested in the inane comments I made.

I will miss this remarkable man. I will miss his remarkable spiritual and theological insights. And the world too will miss Avery Cardinal Dulles, a man who devoted his life to doing God's work in complete loyalty to His Holy Church. What a blessing he was. May he rest in peace in the loving embrace of the Father.

Advent and a New Liturgical Year

Yesterday, the 1st Sunday of Advent, signifies the beginning of a new liturgical year. This year we change to Cycle B which will focus on the Gospel of Mark. The following is the homily I preached at the two vigil Masses at which I assisted...
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Happy New Year! That’s right. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new year, a new liturgical year. But unlike January 1st, that other New Year’s Day, this New Year kind of creeps up on us, doesn’t it? Suddenly it’s Advent, and with Advent, everything changes.

Among the changes that come with the new liturgical year is the change to Mark’s Gospel. Last year was Matthew and next year will be Luke. But this year we’ll hear a lot from Mark.

One thing about Mark: He doesn’t waste words. He moves through the Gospel story almost breathlessly, powered by a sense of urgency, constantly reminding us of the high stakes involved. There’s little suspense in Mark’s telling of the Gospel story. He doesn’t keep us guessing, but tells us what it’s all about right from the beginning. Indeed, he opens his Gospel with the words, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

This is the beginning, Mark tells us, the beginning of the Gospel, the Good News, the news that the entire world longs to hear, the answer to humanity’s long unanswered question: Why are we here? I’ll answer that question, Mark says…I’ll tell you through the words of Jesus the Christ, the Promised One. For that’s what He is, the Christ, the one promised down through the ages, the one promised to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David…

But Jesus is more than this, Mark tells us in those opening words. He’s not only the Christ, the promised Messiah; He’s so much more. He’s the Son of God Himself. And so Mark doesn’t waste our time, but lets the cat out of the bag right from the very beginning.

Mark moves inexorably toward the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. His focus is on the Cross and the journey Jesus makes along the way. His Gospel is really the passion story with a long introduction.

But Mark also focuses on another journey: the journey of the disciple as he moves from being totally clueless, from a complete lack of understanding, to misunderstanding, to failure, betrayal, abandonment, denial, guilt, and finally to understanding, acceptance and obedience. And it’s in the midst of this journey of the disciple where we find ourselves in today’s Gospel reading from the 13th chapter of Mark.

It’s a passage that begins with a command: “Be watchful! Be alert!” and ends with the same command: “Watch!” Responding to His apostles, Jesus tells them a little about the last days, that time of fulfillment when He will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. He tells them, too, that no one – no man or woman, no angel, not even He, in His humanity, knows the day or the hour. But the actual time, he says, is unimportant. What’s important is how we prepare for it.

To make His point Jesus tells them a parable. But unlike Luke or Matthew, Mark relates the parable in a single verse: “It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.” That’s it – a one-line parable. Mark includes just enough to make his point: We are commanded to watch, to be ready…but not to wait in idleness. Each is to do his own work, the work of the disciple, the work that God asks of us.

And what is that work? Only moments before Jesus had told the disciples: “the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.” That’s our task as we wait: to proclaim the good news, God’s presence among us, and to proclaim it to everyone. And while we work, Jesus tells us, we are to watch…because we will not know when He will come again. “… whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.”

Jesus actually mentions some specifics here, doesn’t He? He uses the four night watches common in the ancient world: evening, midnight, cockcrow, and morning. It’s no coincidence that each of these times comes into play in the closing chapters of Mark’s gospel. It’s evening when the apostles celebrate the Passover with the Lord. One of them, though, isn’t watchful, but instead allows the attractions of this world to enter his heart and steer him away from Jesus. One of them leaves early that evening, rejecting the gift that Jesus gives His Church at that first celebration of the Eucharist. He leaves to commit an act of betrayal that will lead Jesus to the Cross.

Later, in the garden, as Jesus prays deep into the night, He invites His remaining disciples to watch and pray with Him. But they, too, succumb to weakness and are unable to watch. Each time He returns from prayer Jesus finds them asleep.

And during that same night – it must have been near midnight – Judas returns at the head of a mob and completes his betrayal. Once again the disciples are unprepared. In fear and confusion, they all forsake Him and run away.

And then there was the cockcrow…the cockcrow that shattered the pre-dawn silence and sounded Peter's guilt. Peter, the leader, the one chosen by Jesus to be the rock on which He would build His Church, the one so full of empty promises and bluster…Yes, Peter the rock is, at this point, still Peter the weakling. For Peter could watch only from the shadows, and overcome by fear, would repeatedly deny His Lord.

And finally, the morning, very early on that first Easter morning, the Risen Lord appears to the disciples and is greeted with disbelief…for they are still caught off guard; they are still unprepared to accept fully the gift of faith and its challenges. Yes, at first the disciples failed miserably at their halfhearted attempts to keep watch. But are you and I really any different?

While we’re having the time of our lives, the actual time of our lives is slipping away, bringing us ever closer to that moment when we will stand face to face before our God.

You see, time is God’s domain, His gift. None of us can predict what tomorrow will bring, not even the next hour nor the next minute. Time is God’s possession alone. In time, God encounters us and we encounter God.

Time holds the very presence of God. We need only open our eyes — our inner eyes — to find Him. God is always present, and there’s never a time when we are without Him. This is Advent, brothers and sisters, a time of finding, a time when we celebrate God’s coming among us. We relive His first coming, His Incarnation as one of us, a coming that leads ultimately to the Resurrection, an event that profoundly changed both time and history…an event that erased the line separating earthly time and eternal time.

Because of Jesus’ coming and living among us, we who exist in time also exist in eternity. And so time doesn’t just pass away; no, our time is the stuff of which our eternity is made, transforming us until we enter into the fullness of God’s presence.

Advent is meant to awaken us again to this truth. In the midst of our busy lives, Advent calls us to slow down, to recognize God’s presence, His continuous comings among us. Jesus’ words are so needed today: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.”

Yes, rushing from one thing to another, when and where do we find the time to welcome the Lord into our lives? This is to what Advent calls us to do — to watch, to be alert, to wait with God, growing into His habitual presence. It calls us to recognize God’s presence in all that we do.

Advent calls us to use God’s gift of time wisely, to simply be: to be with God — to sit with God and to look at our lives through His eyes. When we allow God to be who He is within us…we can learn to know Him, not just know about Him.

Learn from the experience of Mary who each day pondered who Jesus was, what he was about. This Advent may we consciously choose to live as if God’s presence invades each of us, invades all men and women, invades all human experience, invades every part of God’s creation. When we jump out of bed in the morning (or perhaps crawl or groan out of bed) may we drink in God as we drink that first cup of coffee.

May we bring God with us into all we do that day.

May we truly live in God’s time, ever alert, ever watchful for His saving presence.

Come Lord Jesus!