Soulful Muse

You have one. I have one too. If not forced then chosen. Some deny them as though that works. Some move far away from them as though that works. Some even pretend to have any of them as though that works.

Jesus tells us to hate them in order to freely commit ourselves to him. I don’t know what to make of that distinction. Jesus says, “Hate” and the Church says that it’s “church in miniature,“ in other words family is the first Body of Christ until we become more involved in the larger Body of Christ. Such a strong word from an otherwise loving, forgiving Son of God. I checked other translations against ours and they all use the same word, “hate.” Twenty-nine of them. We were taught that you first discover Jesus through and within that first battlefield, “family.” So, I apologize to Jesus today.

Oh well, here’s the “nearest and dearest” of mine.

I’m the fourth of five. My dad studied at St. Francis Seminary in 1924 to become a priest. Happily for me, he quit. My oldest sister was a Sister for fourteen years. She was called a “TO,” in those days meaning teacher/organist so she was needed everywhere. My brother was a Christian Brother for a short time but fell in love with the girl from the next door college. The sister next in line was a Sister for an even shorter time, married a Lutheran pastor, divorced and became a Unitarian pastor for twenty-five years. I’m next, (“the good son”), followed by my youngest sister who never had her one kid baptized (he’s 24 years old!) and practices no formal religion. (I was tempted many times for a quick swish of water over the kid’s head but decided family harmony was more important.)

That’s my thought in contrast to my conundrum with Jesus’ order of hate. You can imagine our family dinners when religion came up. (Oh, I forgot to tell you, my mother wanted to be a nun.) Dessert couldn’t come quick enough during those occasions. “Oh, look at the time! I have to get up early tomorrow.”

Reflecting back on those days, those cantankerous situations were all about who’s right and wrong about religion. No spirituality. As a youngster and taught by my parents, when playing with my Lutheran friends, I thought to myself, “How sad I’ll see never them in Heaven.” I learned later they were thinking the same thing about me. There was disagreement and discord but not to the Jesus degree of “hate.”

As we grew older, family times evolved (a carefully chosen word, by the way) to spiritual matters and the issues of the day. I learned how my siblings addressed each of them in their own way. Our Catholic prayer during Mass says we are a, “pilgrim church.” This means it is not only a pilgrimage toward heaven but one lived during this life as well. And about your family, they are the oldest-knowing people in the whole world who know you.

Only four of us had dinner this past Labor Day. There was laughter, U.S. political briefings, and personal stories for updates. Our young conversations was talk about “booze and babes.” Now, the conversation is “bowels and bladder.” You can’t beat it. I could see the spirituality in their eyes and feel the religion, however practiced, in their hearts. They are not completely of my religion but this is the family that began me. I apologize to Jesus that “hate” did not come up during our Labor Day party. (But there’s still hope for that at Thanksgiving.) I hope my family story can strengthen and nourish yours. It’s the one and only family that began you. (Is that the right verb? Works for me.)

Habakkuk provides us one of the most remarkable sections in all of Scripture, as it contains an extended dialogue between Habakkuk and God (Habakkuk 1–2). The prophet initiated this conversation based on his distress about God’s “inaction” in the world. He wanted to see God do something more, particularly in the area of justice for evildoers. The book of Habakkuk pictures a frustrated prophet, though Habakkuk channeled his frustration into prayers and eventually praise to God.

The book of Habakkuk reminds us that no place is too dark and no wall too thick for God’s grace to penetrate in a powerful and life-affirming way.

As you hear this, don’t think about the Babylonians as a place. Think about something within yourself that’s keeping you from a fuller commitment to God. Or, something like cancer talking to God. Depression. Frustration of any kind. Doubts of all colors. Any kind of pain from your toenails to your crazy mind. A conversation between you and God…any day of the week. All thanks to the prophet Habakkuk. (An abridged version.)

Justice Is a Joke

“God, how long do I have to cry out for help before you listen? How many times do I have to yell, ‘Help! Murder! Police!’ before you come to the rescue? Why do you force me to look at evil, stare trouble in the face day after day? Anarchy and violence break out, quarrels and fights all over the place. Law and order fall to pieces. Justice is a joke. The wicked have the righteous hamstrung and stand justice on its head.”

God Says, “Look!”

“Look around at the godless nations. Look long and hard. Brace yourself for a shock. Something’s about to take place and you’re going to find it hard to believe. I’m about to raise up Babylonians to punish you, Babylonians, fierce and ferocious—World-conquering Babylon, grabbing up nations right and left, A dreadful and terrible people, making up its own rules as it goes. Their horses run like the wind, attack like bloodthirsty wolves. They mock kings, poke fun at generals, Spit on forts, and leave them in the dust. They’ll all be blown away by the wind. Brazen in sin, they call strength their god.”

Why Is God Silent Now?

“God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you? Holy God, we aren’t going to die, are we? God, you chose Babylonians for your judgment work? Rock-Solid God, you gave them the job of discipline?
But you can’t be serious! You can’t condone evil! So why don’t you do something about this? Why are you silent now? This outrage! Evil men swallow up the righteous and you stand around and watch!
You’re treating men and women as so many fish in the ocean, Swimming without direction, swimming but not getting anywhere. Then this evil Babylonian arrives and goes fishing. He pulls in a good catch.
Are you going to let this go on and on? Will you let this Babylonian fisherman, Fish like a weekend angler, killing people as if they’re nothing but fish? What’s God going to say to my questions? I’m braced for the worst. I’ll climb to the lookout tower and scan the horizon.
I’ll wait to see what God says, how he’ll answer my complaint.”

Full of Self, but Soul-Empty

And then God answered: “Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.
Look at that man, bloated by self-importance—full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing – is fully alive, really alive.
Note well: Money deceives. The arrogant rich don’t last. They are more hungry for wealth than the grave is for cadavers. Like death, they always want more, but the ‘more’ they get is dead bodies.
Who do you think you are—getting rich by stealing and extortion? How long do you think you can get away with this? Indeed, how long before your victims wake up, stand up and make you the victim?
Who do you think you are—recklessly grabbing and looting, Living it up, acting like king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles? You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself.
Who do you think you are—building a town by murder, a city with crime? Don’t you know that God-of-the-Angel-Armies makes sure nothing comes of that but ashes.
Who do you think you are—inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, Giving them too much to drink. You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong! It’s a time of disgrace. All the time you were drinking, you were drinking from the cup of God’s wrath. You’ll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over – hung over [by your own] violence,
What’s the use of a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can’t even talk? Who do you think you are—saying to a stick of wood, ‘Wake up,’ Or to a dumb stone, ‘Get up’? Can they teach you anything about anything? There’s nothing to them but surface. There’s nothing on the inside.

But oh! God is in his holy Temple! Quiet everyone—a holy silence. Listen!

“In those days, Amalek came and waged war against Israel. Moses, therefore, said to Joshua, “Pick out certain men, and tomorrow go out and engage Amalek in battle. I will be standing on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him: he engaged Amalek in battle after Moses had climbed to the top of the hill with Aaron and Hur. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the better of the fight, but when he let his hands rest, Amalek had the better of the fight. Moses’hands, however, grew tired; so they put a rock in place for him to sit on. Meanwhile Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. And Joshua mowed down Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.”
Book of Exodus

Who would Lucy have been without Fred and Ethel?

The great Moses, the Charlton Heston of all biblical figures, couldn’t stand with his arms outstretched for Joshua to win the battle. It doesn’t take long before that great and mighty one needs a little help. (Cue “The Beatles,” “Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.”) He may have said to himself, “This war is taking a little longer than I thought.” Enter stage left, Aaron and Hur to the rescue. Moses gets to rest on a rock, and the supporting characters get to keep Moses’ arms raised, assuring victory for God’s troops.

What could Cagney have done without Lacy?

We may come in and out of this world alone, but the in-between time is a colorful cast of characters to help us along. “Help us along…” I thought we were supposed to become rugged individualists, self-made men, “men” deliberately chosen because the wives are home doing Monday’s laundry and getting supper ready; every day. That American myth has no place in our beautiful Catholic faith. We are in this together. We need each other. Many hands can perform so much more. (I think it’s called the Body of Christ.) Speaking of Christ, even he couldn’t do it alone. He needed twelve others to work with him, pray for him, support and encourage him. Interestingly, the etched window at the church’s entrance has thirteen apostles surrounding by the Blessed Mother. The thirteenth is the one called the “Last Apostle,” St. Paul. Very clever. Working together – through all ages and generations.

On “Happy Days,” what would Richie have done without the “Fonz?”

What would Johnny Carson have done for thirty years without that Irish guy sitting at the end of the couch and laughing at jokes, funny or not?

Unity, community. I’m not being political, but the Democratic debate last Tuesday night ended with a personal, powerful question that can be asked of each of us, in a faith-filled way: “What friendship have you had that would surprise us, and what impact it had on your beliefs?” We work together even when disagreements occur because we are all only concerned with the whole of the Church and not just our personal opinions or beliefs. That’s a community with a capital “C.” We all sang at the beginning, “In his wisdom, he strengthens us, like gold that’s tested in fire.”

As I’m sure you all do, I talk to myself. But not talking to me but two other people. It began years ago and continues to this day. I converse with them about my day and tomorrow’s day, any concerns or doubts that I have. They don’t respond because I know their responses. They’re both only a phone call away, but I don’t need the phone. They’re in my mind and heart. Keeps me balanced.

To not leave you older folks out of the loop, what would Fiber Magee have done without Molly?

Our tendency to be selfish is tempted and tested our whole lives. The Eucharist is our mutual time to bond again together. To renew and respect the community that Christ built. At Offertory, we’ll see repeatedly, “Give me nothing more than your love and grace. These alone, O God, are enough for me.” I would add “these alone are enough for us!

You may not know this but priests are still allowed to have a private Mass. Oxymoron? “Mass,” as in numerous people. “Private,” as in just one guy?” Just the priest. In the old days, a priest was expected to have Mass every day. A little extra cash and fulfilling an obligation. That’s no longer the case but some priests still do it. I know it’s a connection to the universal Church throughout the world but give me a break. What happens at the Sign of Peace? “Peace be with you.” “Oh no, peace be with you!” Weird.

What would the fictional TV host, Alan Brady have done without Dick Van Dyke, Mori Amsterdam and Rose Marie?

Elizabeth Taylor had eight of them when you count Richard Burton twice.

The great Moses needed assistance. Moses needed others, a faithful community to perform God’s actions. Hue and Aaron, little known but significant characters in our biblical story. I never heard of Hur before this scripture reading and I knew that Aaron was Moses’ brother. The three of them, following God’s guidance, allow Joshua to win the battle. As Mass ends today, we’ll end it by singing, “Come with the strength I lack, the vision clear of neighbor’s need, of all humanity; fulfillment of my life in love outpoured…”

A supportive and encouraging community of faithful followers in the name of Jesus Christ. Assembled together not because of our personal quirks and qualms, but because of the unity we together continue to build and honor in the name of Jesus Christ. Our meditation song following communion has an unusual title but it simply means, “never give up,” like the widow persistently did to that inhuman judge.

One more for you. Who would the TV psychologist Bob Newhart have interacted with except his wise and sensible wife. Suzanne Pleshette.

Ready or not, on my porch, I’m beginning to see them fall around me. Some slowly, others faster, sometimes alone and others surrounding themselves. The ground holds them as their numbers increase each day.

I considered glue and buying a very, very tall ladder but smiled at its futility. Scotch tape? Same response. It’s happening and has been happening all my life but this time in my life it seems to kinda hurt to see those guys and gals falling from their beautiful branches that made summer so green. Now their green turns to amber, and then finally becoming a rich gold that says to all, “Another season is ending with a new season beginning.”
Like creating an angle in the snow in my image, I also thought of making them my own before they finally disappear. I could spell my name upon each of those “goldens.” It’s only three letters. Shouldn’t take that long. But then I thought, “Why would I use my name when they are the ones passing from one season to another?” I should piece their names together (cue the scotch tape), one leaf at a time until it identified someone loved and missed, gone but not forgotten. Sounds kinda like “family,” “church?”

Across from my family home was a vacant lot where my sixth-grade girlfriend and I would create a home out of those “goldens” in the late fall. Flatly placed on the ground but clearly 3-D in our minds. A created kitchen where good food was served along with laughter and arguments. Our living room was the smallest because every good conversation occurred in the kitchen, our largest room. Our leaf-created hallway led to each bedroom where our small green-leafed children slept and woke up to this beautiful fall day. We enjoyed our homemaking adventure until the wind blew it away for winter’s snow.

Spring is about potential and newness and summer is all about risk and adventure. Autumn is soley about reflection. Autumn is purely about preserving memories in minds and hearts that have lived all four seasons.

I don’t know enough people to link all those fallen leaves. Instantly, I can remember those close to me. Or, famous names I remember from the newspaper or unnamed leafs that have left someone, somewhere, behind. The few loved names closest to me are the ones I’m saving for last. I hope to collect as many of them that I can remember and place them in my real kitchen and watch the richness of what their lives meant to me return to the dust from which they came.

There’s a sadness in autumn’s leaves but also a rich gold feeling for the green turning amber and then shared for how many years.

Well, after typing on my porch, it’s back to my remembering how enriching life can be for me right now. And how enriching life my life has been because of those leaves I watch fall to the ground. They have colored my life gold with their lives, and I continue to golden their lives through my remembering and honoring.

I think that’s why they’re called “leaves.”

A new rule. It will now be against the law to buy pineapple in January in Wisconsin. (There’s a petition outside for you to sign.)

I never cared for cute little slogans. “I’m glad we’re all on the same page.” Trite. “Make sure all your ducks are in a row.” And, for the sake of all breathing humanity, the worst of all is “24/7.” Why not just say, “All the time?”

We’ve erased time. We’ve erased night time. That sacred time for rejuvenation, quiet, darkness, peace; did I say “quiet?” I don’t know how third shift workers do it. They work third shift, then take a normal person’s day off, and then return to work that abnormal shift. If it’s done for the benefit of their kids then I get it. If it’s for extra money, it’s their loss. That precious quiet-time, alone time; even if you’re in a house full of others.

Whatever happened to hearing the “National Anthem” and viewing the “test screen” at midnight when NBC, CBS and ABC took a rest for a while. Nobody watched PBS. How many reruns of Bob Newhart or “I Love Lucy” do you really need to watch?

I’m not just talking about losing the darkness of night but it’s about losing healthy, necessary divisions that divide up our days. Divided for a reason – physical and spiritual. For our faith purposes, especially spiritual. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the Good Lord took a day off after creating all this glorious stuff.

Growing up we could never watch TV on a school night. Ready for this? Sunday night was considered a school night. However, Sunday night at 9:30 we could watch “What’s My Line” with Bennett Cerf, Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallon and a special guest like Orson Bean or Tony Randall. And, forever whatever reason, “The Danny Kaye Show” was permitted on a weeknight, even though, “He’s not Catholic.”

Losing divisions of time and space in our world affects our minds and hearts.

You exhale a strong sigh after a long day. That breath exchange beautifully ends the workday and begins the family evening. (This is why retirement scares me. Slowly, I’ll need to segment my days or it’ll all run together into a messy mess of cheap wine and watching “As The World Turns,” only turning without me!

Do we really need twenty-four news channels? Are we really more informed today than we were forty years ago? I know that we’re not. And did you ever think that you’d live to have a “golf channel” in your cable lineup? I don’t think so. (It’s not even a sport.)

Jesus chose a desert. Not just the forty-day one at the beginning but whenever life became too much life, he needed a relief; a pause, a respite. Sounds healthy to me. Our favorite funeral reading is “a time for this and time for that.” People complain that they get distracted while saying the rosary. It’s supposed to happen that way! That’s why it’s repetitious. Allowing your mind to wander over the day that passed and wonder about what tomorrow may bring for yourself, your family, neighbors and the world.

When Copps Department store opened in Manitowoc, it stayed open … on Sundays. Pastors said to boycott the store which lasted a couple of days, with Christians soon becoming “Sunday shoppers.” You thought that Armageddon occurred when the only harm occurred in our psyche, our soul – the deepest and smartest part of us that only seems to communicate with us during downtimes, times of solitude; what parents today tell their children is “a time out.” Even in sports, you’re allowed a “time out,” a seventh-inning stretch, a halftime to rethink, replan, renew all the good stuff of your life and reject and resent whatever holds you back from being a balanced and healthy person created by God. “Halftime.” When was the last time you gave yourself one, silly hour?!

You thought dinner with a friend would last about an hour, but it lasted three of them. You’re reading a book and surprised when the clock moved forward ninety minutes. You walk around six blocks and smoothly feel any anxiety, distress, or worry dissipate into the air you’re breathing in. You realize the silly program you’re watching on TV is a distraction, a waste of your time. I remember a friend telling me that she keeps the TV on all night. It helps her sleep, she claims. I refrained from a response, but you know what I’d tell her.

We talk about clutter and hoarding in physical ways but consider what our minds absorb daily these days in social and TV media. We need time to keenly and spiritually “process” (which means thinking, praying about life stuff and current affairs), and then dismiss or pursue them.

I’ve read in several times places how “social media” alienates when its intention is to connect. Parents, I totally support you limiting all viral social exchanges until your children are thirty-years-old. Trust me. The last time I checked, nothing beats a face in front of you when you have something important to share.

The spiritually healthy activity of reflection can only take place in the night of your soul, in the darkness where all three persons of the Trinity enjoy their golden opportunity to talk to you, remind you, inspire you, assist you in making your life authentic to God’s creation – a gold, precious, sacred and most importantly, livable.

Don’t forget about the new rule about pineapple in January. Your life, and the lives of those around you, both old and new, depend upon it.

“The afternoon knows what the morning suspected.” So says, Robert Frost. So says most of us as our suns slowly sets.

“Youth is wasted on the young,” someone said which I find to be true. But I would never, ever want to be eighteen again now that I’m this age. (Sorry, future adults.) However, youth is the time for accumulating knowledge, hopefully useful knowledge to be used throughout life. But something is still missing in those early years. Ummm…

Our bodies slowly begin to show it’s age, or some age. Creaks, pains and weird sounds emitting from us; without warning! Gravity wins as the years mount. You may look in the morning mirror and not see yourself as much as you begin to see your parent. (It’s my father for me.)

Life is timed, a beginning and an end. Our soul, however, knows neither. As our bodies age, our soul doesn’t age, it matures. Another gift from God that was not lost to sin: our soul.

Our weekend readings talk about growing in humility, humble and holy. Three words that our culture scoffs at.

“If you want to get ahead in this world…” “It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” (I’ve never seen two dogs eating each other but I’ve witnessed it happening between people. “Only the strong survive,” and how many other sayings that fill our heads and place us ahead of that person we’ve left behind. It happens with priests as well. My joke about some priests is, “Even when they shower, they wear french cuffs!”

But forget your aging bodies and prayerfully consider and honor your maturing soul. Myself included. I don’t think I’d get very far in my soulful prayer thinking about words that our U.S. culture hates to every use – humility, humble, holy. Three “H’s” that may make you the loser in your working career and but a person of Christ in your spiritual life.

But wait! Why don’t we play a trick with our soiled U.S. minds and dwell more often on our soul which embodies those three “H’s,” and see what happens.

Soul. This God-planted organ that spiritually matures as another year is added to our life. So much of the soul, I believe, is instinctual. Scripture says it’s actively living and breathing within us. Our soul knows the right when we choose wrong. Our soul talks to us. We learn to press the “off” when the soul says, “Click the “off”. Our soul is communicating with us. When we humanly sin, our soul edges us a little more closely toward those three unU.S. words – humility, humble, holy.

If you don’t like what I’m saying so far then let me try this direction. In the movie, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the baby is born fully old complete with dropping wrinkles and weary legs. Benjamin dies at the end as a pure, innocent baby in the loving arms of Cate Blanchett. (Brad Pitt, my double, plays the kid.) The infant baby here is the soul – full of all Christian history, saints and sinners (old, tried and true), stirring slowly the growing child toward the wisdom of God. The song sings, “We return to God what God has made in love.” Innocence. Vulnerable. Full of life’s wisdom. That’s what the teenager’s knowledge cannot achieve. The teen gets the knowledge tossed into the head but it steadily and persistently triggers the soul’s wise wisdom that is anciently old. That can only be achieved by a life lived – both in sin, indifference, and in grace.

If I asked any of you, and I mean all of you, if you are a holy, humble person? What do you think I’d hear? Every one of you would say, “No, not me. Maybe her, over there.” Ironically, you’d think that humility calls you to say that you’re not holy. It’d be a lie in my eyes but it may be your continuing what your aging U.S. bodies have all carried and continue to carry. You haven’t listened to the far more aging stories of your soul.

Remember, Mary never said, “My mind proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” She may have had her own aging moments but always possessed the maturity of the what? She powerfully says, “My soul proclaims…”

That’s my dad talking to us all in my morning mirror. “Humble, holy along with God’s gift of humility is within our reach. It’s the soul of the matter.

Robert Frost paraphrased, “The afternoon knows very well now what the morning thought and dreamed about what would eventually happen with passing, aging years…and it did happen.”

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note. Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.” Luke 16

You say all the Church talks about is money!

Hebrews: “Keep your lives free from the love of money, be content with what you have.”

1 Timothy: “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap into many foolish and harmful desires.”

“Whoever loves money never has enough.” Ecclesiastes.

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.” Proverbs.

Four quotes are enough isn’t it? Would the rich folks still want more?

I’m already tired and I’m getting paid to do this!

The worst or the best of all biblical references is, “forgive us our … debts, as we forgive our debtors; our trespasses. We’ll be saying that, as we do each Mass, later on in this Mass. Stay tuned.

Money. What we think about each and every day. Carry in our back pocket or around our shoulder or tightly held in our hand. (If it’s in your hand then a fancy designer name on the outside helps the crooks decide.)

The clever unjust steward’s name is never given. That’s why I’m here. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ reduced our “debt” to God through his life and death. As parents do for her children.

The Bible is full of warnings and admonitions about the thing we think about so much. The thing we save for so someday we can buy “that” thing.

Proverbs: “Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil.”

Jesus ransomed (currency exchange) his life in exchange for our lives. That’s a trade made with immeasurable dividends. However, “there’s a penalty for early withdrawal.” In exchange for what Jesus did for us, he requires total gratitude to his Father. That’s called “church.” Not such a bad deal. There’s wonderful people you meet along the way to help you in need and celebrate with you in joyful times. There’s Bingo at some churches and fabulous fish fries at others.

St. Luke: “Then he said to them, ‘Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’” So it isn’t only money that can possess and preoccupy us.

Don’t think I’m preaching only to you. I live alone and have three TV’s!

A priest friend uses the image of “dance” to describe our relationship with God. We’re doing a two-step to often by-step God and God wants a joyful polka to dance us through life. (In 3/4 time.) The imagery of money is the one I like best. It’s the very most important thing of our lives to describe our lives so why not our salvation. Whether it’s the waiter when we hesitant to add one more dollar to their meager base pay or to the commitment that God asks of us each and every day.

Ransom: “Look God, I’ve done everything the Church asks of me, so You must know as well as I do that eternal life is mine.”

Bargain: “Look God, if you cure my child of cancer, I promise to do…” whatever that promise may be. (Promissory note, anyone?)

Exchange: “Look God, let’s talk about a trade…”

You get the idea. All the sentences begin and end with you know who.

Salvation is a gift – a freely given gift – no ransoming, bargaining or exchanging about it.

Our debts have been forgiven. All God asks is an equal response from us. We will fail … sometimes … we will succeed … sometimes. That’s the way of this human adventure.

There is absolutely no “quid pro quo” in this beautiful religious journey. “Something for something,” in which one transfer is contingent upon the other is shallow, selfish and so much like us all.

I never liked the judgement-at-the-end-of-life imagery thing because that speaks of a bartering between the Creator and the created. It’s born of fear, not love. And this is out of love. Jesus paid our debt, in full.

Only look in your back pocket or overpriced purse. Then look in your heart. Search your soul. Look at those around you. Please, give the waiter that extra dollar.

Matthew: “For where your treasure lies, there your heart will also be.”

Opening for One Retired Person, full-time.

Experience: Are you kidding. We want lots of experiences. Decades of experience that have proven your worth.

Responsibilities: Since you now have all this time on your hands, it is time to share your hands as a volunteer. If you are unable to volunteer for one event, one time then please tear up this application, find a corner in your room and kindly wait for the good Lord to take you. This may take many years since you are in good health but trust me, volunteering for one event will not harm, injure nor kill you.
If you volunteer for more than one event then you will find a new swing in your step, a brightened attitude and planned events to look forward to. (But that is only about you; volunteering also helps those whose hands you have now become.)
You must have a story to tell. It doesn’t matter how old the story is, just always have one handy. Dates do not matter, please. If it was 1940 or 1941 during the fall or spring season of either, we really don’t care – just please make the point of your story.

Recognize your future: We realize that your future is today and possibly even tomorrow. Grab it, hold it, cherish it and most of all, savor it. Because this moment is the now that you swore you would honor once you retired. Well, it’s finally here so take a second look at that budding flower, spend a little more time with a good friend and please don’t arrive 30 minutes early for an event. (You’re not late, you’re just much too early!)
Please don’t minimize the present culture as decaying with no future ahead of itself. You are really talking about yourself more than the supposedly decaying culture. Trust me, culture will continue in time, without you. The hope that you’ve nurtured and fostered over your many years needs to be same hope that you nurture and foster in the generation that follows you. It’s the least that you can do before you go.
If you see a green banana, please do not think that it belongs to you. As aging people, green bananas may have more time than you have. Take the yellow one, peel it, eat and enjoy it as soon as possible.
If a sign says, “free,” that does not always mean “me,” even though it rhymes. “Free” anything looks funny when you’re apartment is cleaned after your passing only to find scores and scores of free stuff that you’ve never used because the predicted nuclear attack did not occur.

Pray: Pray for us who remain in this earthly journey. Pray that we don’t make the same mistakes as you did but have learned from yours to improve our always divided and broken world. Please don’t pray for your “poor souls” because your souls are already sanctified by the Cross. After all, isn’t yours “The Greatest Generation!” (I never liked that label.) Instead pray for us, pray for your children’s fulfillment and the fulfillment of your grandchildren. They are your legacy. And if you have neither, then please pray for your neighbors children and their children because their future also relies on your past.

Waking and Sleeping: When you wake up in the morning simply say, “Thanks be to God.” Before you fall asleep at night simply say, “Not my will but Yours be done.” That way you’ve got yourself covered in both gratitude to God and yielding to God’s will. (Catholics have this thing about dying in their sleep, as though that’s a bad thing!)

Lifting: Very important in the retirement years. Your responsibilities here entails lifting the many burdens from others’ shoulders. You do this by listening, smiling and then powerfully saying, “It’s alright. It’s okay.” Feel free to lift as heavy a burden as you are able from someone else’s shoulders but please don’t forget your own. It gets heavy enough walking through life with the weight of another in addition to the weight of whatever grudge, sin or misfortune you continue to bear.

Benefits: You are the oldest person on the planet, we get that. Please don’t surround yourself with folks younger than you and than razz them about young they are.
The risk of this benefit is that your age becomes your focus in every thought and conversation. We already know your age, you do not need to refer to it in aged stories or old friends. Just enjoy the ripeness of the age you thought you’d never reach.

New friends: You are able to replenish your friends. We know that so many of your friends have gone but there’s a new person over there who may like to meet you.

Salary: It’s not negotiable. It’s life – here and now. Take it or leave it. (As though you have a choice.) Life insurance is not necessary since…

Investment Possibilities: Endless and Complete. Endless because this life only leads to another life and complete because living this long finally demands the union your body, mind and soul.

“I can’t” says the teenage person talking to her friends who’s been grounded by her parents. The “I can’t” person is the Catholic who fears for eternal life and losing out to that other place.

The “I can’t” person. Legalistic. Not responsible. Someone else or something else is the decider. Lived in a religious fear, full of constant doubt, an unforgiving guilt and a heap load of personal mistrust. “I can’t” person says, “These are the church’s rules of life, I need to dutifully obey.”

Then there’s the “I won’t” person, a mature Catholic who responds with those two words when something nefarious, dividing, or just plain wrong is offered. Forget the written commandments, they are inscribed and lived within our hearts, says the young prophet Jeremiah. The “I won’t” person agrees with Jeremiah. The “I can’t” person says back, “I can’t.”

“I can’t” is a person of forced labor, slave labor (if you will). Blindly obedient. Compliant. Conforming, tame.

Integrity remains one of my all time favorite words. The word stands strong when applied to your life. The “I won’t” person has admitted and integrated (another great word) personal weaknesses and strengths, cultural passings, taking church laws and commandments and making them all a personal and prayerful part of honoring God and living life.

The “I can’t” person is impersonal – there’s no personal investment, just following the rules (or is it the roll the dice?) to see which eternal place is the future. Because you see, the “I can’t” person is only concerned with the hereafter. Interesting that “hereafter” can mean both eternity as well as tomorrow. So, which one will it be? The “I won’t” person takes all that important life and religious stuff and lives a fulfilling and joy filled life … today and … every day hereafter. “I won’t” lives, breathes and shares God’s blessed eternity, God’s heaven, here and now. Completely and full of satisfaction, appreciation and a sincere peace. “I can’t” says, “I can’t.” I guess that’s why that’s the person’s name.

“I can’t,” “I won’t”. Two completely different persons but living and praying within the same church. Or, are these persons sometimes both living within one person?

“I can’t” says, “I can’t stop preaching to you because I need to prove how intelligent I am and how much reading I’ve done to prepare this Sunday’s sermon.”

“I won’t” says, “I won’t continue talking to you as fellow travelers because I just told you what I wanted you to hear.”

Your boss approaches you and says, “You’re doing a great job. There’s a 10% increase for you starting next month.” You smile back to him and reply, “Thank you very much but, no. I make enough money. I’m not sure what to do with all the money I make now. So, I’ll say no.”

If you ever say or meet someone who tells his boss that, please let me know.

This Marian feast about that simple, three-letter word that allowed a divine entry into our humanly broken world. “Yes.” It’s followed by her beautiful prayer (“The Magnificat”) that ought to all memorize as well as we know the “Our Father.”

Back to the boss. She tells you to stay late tomorrow. You immediately think, “no.” But you comply. The work is finished the next night, and you drive home feeling satisfied, complete. Mary might have felt way, being a teenager as we think she was. No husband, probably working some menial job. And, ready for this? There’s a full bloom angel standing in front of her asking her, “Not to be afraid.” What would your first thought be?

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” We all know all sin begins and ends with selfishness. Some writers simply call sin “forgetting.” We’ve forgotten the tenets and beauties of our Christian faith. “It’s all about us, as individuals,” we think. Those may not be the words you use, but our actions show them loudly. Mary didn’t say, “My mind proclaims.” Her “Yes” arose from her soul. That divinely trusted organ that God placed within us to inform, guide our minds. Mary’s “Yes” amounted to saying to the angel and to God, “I trust you. I’m not sure why, but I truly trust you.”

Now, what about our “Yes’s?” The answer is the Church. We even name the Church after her. I don’t mean “Queen of Apostles,” I mean “Holy Mother Church.” I need all of you to validate my “Yes’s” in my life, and I need to validate yours. This isn’t a priestly thing but as Catholic to Catholic or Catholic to any Christian denomination or person to person.

“He has scattered the proud in their conceit (selfishness, forgetfulness anyone?). He has cast down the mighty from their thrones (“I’m usually, if not all the time, pretty much right.”) and has lifted up the lowly.

When we say “No” when the divine response is “Yes,” a needed duty. Then the soul informs the mind. Grace fills us up. When the “Yes’s” of your decisions so often turn out to be “No’s,” there a helpful church friend, an assisting church organization to wake up your soul and tune down that over-working mind of yours.

“He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.”

“Yes,” my husband is dying. “Yes,” I lost my job, but I didn’t lose me, “Yes,” my life is going well for me, now how can I help others?

Multiple choice questions often offer a third option, “Not sure.” Mark that one when your first thought is “No.” We may be baffled by the mystery of this day, then check “Not sure.” Times in life and days like this are a mystery to be lived, not solved. (You’ll hear me say that often.)

From Our Lady of Guadalupe, another mysterious event. “Have you forgotten? I am your Mother. You are not alone. You are under my protection. Anything you need, ask me. Do not worry about anything. Am I not here, I who am your Mother? Have you forgotten? I love you, and you are under my protection.”