My friends, as I pondered over today’s readings, it came to me that, “being a Christian,” a follower of our brother, Jesus, has to most assuredly be about action. St. Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, which served as our 2nd reading today, says as much. He notices that the people are, “proving their faith by their actions, laboring in love, and hoping constantly in Jesus” – all action words!
Upon further reflection, I humbly realized that the above three actions are what we attempt to do here, and it’s what one of our own did stunningly as she proclaimed her, and our truth to the local bishop recently! Hers and our truth proclaimed to him that we all felt his lack of pastoral care in refusing to meet with us because we disagree on key issues of our religious faith. Her proclamation also included the truth that we are a vibrant parish, led by a woman priest, and that he is basically missing a lot in not talking with us!
Paul, again from his letter to the Thessalonians, gives credit to the Spirit for the “preaching” he and his associates are doing among them. I have often shared with this community that my homilies are what “the Spirit and I do together each week.” I truly believe this – that the Spirit is with me when I write, and find it most interesting that what She gives me is often about love, while what the bishop proclaims begins with the law, and never quite gets to “the love.”
My 2nd mother, the mother of my heart, Margaret, often said of it, “They [meaning the hierarchy] have forgotten the love.” Bishop Barron said as much when 3 years ago he wrote to the diocese before attending Pope Francis’ synodality meetings in Rome, of his concern that the “laws” of the Church wouldn’t be followed, and his exact words were, “law always trumps love”[!]
We are currently moving through the fall time of our year – here in Minnesota, many of our trees are “alive” with colors of gold, red and brown. Watching any of the PBS specials on the wonders of our solar system, the expanse of our universe, the fruit, flower, and fauna varieties in our world, we can hardly view all that and not realize and understand how much we are loved by our God, that we are given so much to enjoy. Also, that God or some Higher Power is with us, and responsible for all this variety and beauty!
The prophet Isaiah speaks of this today when he relates God’s message, “I am your God – there is no other.” In other words, there is one God for all. Certainly, this same God for all can’t wish that the Israelis and the Palestinians kill mass amounts of each other’s people.
It strikes me that a piece of Jesus’ message in the gospel of Matthew today, that we give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is God’s, has to be that we as spiritual people here, having a human experience must rise above the law, the status quo, what everyone else is doing, and simply, try love for a change, try talking and talking some more with true hearts until we get to a workable solution – it’s what Jimmy Carter did 50 years ago in bringing together Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachem Begin of Israel. Laws can only get us so far, but love can take us where we want and need to be as Jesus taught in his earthly life among us. Ultimately, placing law over love is more about authoritarianism, whereas love is about being in relationship with others.
The documentary on women priests highlighting my priesthood, being produced by Kay Hannahan and Tyler Hurley is about placing love over law. When I was actively engaged as a chaplain in this community at our hospital, Winona Health, in the Hospice program and in senior living, I realized that I was consistently doing “priestly” ministry, without proclaiming it as such – by “showing up” at births to celebrate, in times of trouble showing God’s mercy, and at deaths to help folks grieve, but to remember as well.
Through our personal spiritual process, Robert and I, not being able to find the love, challenge and acceptance within the “regular” Church, realized we needed to form one, modeling Jesus, where love could truly be found. Canon law 1024 that prohibits women being ordained within the Catholic church, an unjust law, had to be broken because love called for more. In all of this, I am not saying that laws shouldn’t be followed — only when they get in the way of love – as Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is his, and to God what is God’s.”
In the spirit of hope, I would like to share some thoughts from others that have “crossed my plate” recently:
- From 13th Century Persian Sufi mystic and Islamic scholar and poet, Rumi,
“In every religion there is love, but love has no religion.” - From Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, and this is for the demonstrators out there, “There maybe times when we are [unable] to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
- From Franciscan Father Richard Rohr, who says, “I always pass my words through three gates – Is it true? Is it loving? Is it necessary?” He goes on to say, “We must be sustained by a sense of what we are for, not just what we are against!”
With that my friends, onward! Amen? Amen!
