Pause

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

The group leader says, “We pause for a moment of prayer” when no one knows how long that pause will last.

These days the uselessly used word in our crazy culture proudly declares us to be one of 24/7.

TV pauses you for an important message while watching a program you’re enjoying but now hearing about hemorrhoids for thirty-seconds. (And, the couple are seen running around in fields that never resembles your home). You pause at the red light because that’s the law but pausing may be longer when the driver in front of you is messaging a friend. However, that traffic’s red light means you have two more seconds for either that pause or hitting the gas.

We seem to be losing that brief but beautiful word, that gift. It’s the space between saying something you’ll later regret and it’s that space, even a tiny space, between one event before the next.

Adding “ing” to the word returns you to yourself. Pausing becomes a powerful tool for taking a deep breath of silence to recollect yourself reminding yourself of your roots, whatever anchors you. For us Christians, it’s naturally the heritage of our faith returning us to who God wants us to be. Pious, perhaps but giving us that small moment of time for us to regain or reinforce ourselves. It breaks apart that dumb 24/7 attitude allowing us to make time meaningful and fruitful.

Needing time alone? Desert? Mountains? Gardens? We’re talking about Jesus Christ even when the crowds stalk him.

My habitual but well serving habit is going out for a smoke when dining with friends. My three-minute pause recaps what I’m hearing and saying and what I’d like to include next in our conversations. It’s a mental digestion before the meaty one. Works for me.

Pause is the action, pausing is the prayer. Movie characters run to the roof to exhibit their pausing time for us. Believers run to the roof of the Holy Spirit seeking divine support or correction. She contains all the virtues needed for life but may, at times, find it difficult to be heard through those 24/7 noises. Feel her and let her fill you.

Enjoy and endure your hemorrhoids. Smile and continue to watch and enjoy the unfolding TV show that is called “Your Life.”

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“The Green Thing,” Retrospect

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ back in my earlier days.”

The young clerk cursedly responded, “That’s our problem. Your generation didn’t care enough to save our environment for future generations!”

She was right. Our generation didn’t have that “green thing” in our day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles, and beer bottles to the store. The store then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized, and refilled so it could be the same bottle over and over again.

But alas, we didn’t need the “green thing” back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our one-time by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on those brown paper bags.

But, unfortunately, we did not have this “green thing” back then.

We walked upstairs because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we needed to travel two blocks.

But, woefully for us oldsters, she was right. We didn’t need the “green thing” in our day.

Back then we washed the baby’s diapers because the throwaway kind wasn’t invented yet. We dried clothes on a clothesline and not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters and not always the brand new clothing fashion.

But, regrettably, for us, that young lady is right. We didn’t have the “green thing” back in our day.

Back then we had one TV or radio in the house, not a TV in every room. And our TV had a small screen, the size of a handkerchief. Not a TV screen the size of the state of Montana. In the Kitchen? We blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded-up old newspapers to cushion it, not today’s Styrofoam and plastic bubble wrap. Back then we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on power – human power. We didn’t need a health club to run like a mouse on treadmills that, by the way, operate on electricity.

But, unlucky us, we didn’t need the “green thing” back then.

Back then we drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or plastic bottle. We refilled writing pens with ink instead o buying a new and we replaced the razor blade instead of throwing the whole thing away.

But, lamentably for us, we did not have the “green thing” back then.

Back then people took the streetcar or bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mom into a 24-hour taxi service in the family’s overpriced SUV which cost what a whole house did before this “green thing.” We had one electrical outlet in a room and not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space to find the nearest burger joint.

But it is truly sad that the current generation blames us old folks
because we didn’t have this “green thing.”

So, please simply smile back at those young cashiers, often tattooed along with multiple piercings, who can’t make change without the cash registers telling them.

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The Two’s Our Lives

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Up/Down
Here/There
He/She
Above/Around
Noah’s
Republican/Democrat
Now/Then
Cagney/Lacey
Starsky/Hutch
Simon/Garfunkel
Heaven/Hell
Catholic/Non-Catholic
Boy/Girl
Man/Woman
Married/Divorced
Cats/Dogs
Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner
Yesterday/Tomorrow
Right/Wrong
Day/Night
Employed/Retired
Black/White
Time/Universe
Cursive/Printing
Right/Left
Ferrante/Teicher
Sandler/Young
Chad/Jeremy
Don/Phil
Jan/Dean
This/That
Priest/Others
Straight/Gay
Absolute/Relative
Legal/Ill
Healthy/Sickly
Young/Old
Smart/Dumb
Brother/Sister
Living/Deceased
Good/Bad
Hair/Bald
True/False
Believer/Non-believer
Skinny/Fat
Truth/Consequences
Vanilla/Chocolate
Handwritten/Email
Hello/Goodbye
Mortal/Venial
See/Blind
Rowan/Martin
Hear/Deaf
Tongue/Hand
Action/Couch
Angels/Demons
Sin/Grace
Sonny/Cher
War/Peace
Content/Anxiety
Cold/Hot
Engaged/Bored
Borrowed/Gone
Beginning/Ending
Apple/Google

There appears to be no “middle ground,” “in-between” is forgotten, “sometimes” is dismissed, “perhaps” is no longer pondered, “what if” and “what about” are non-questions, “assumptions” are forbidden in a dualistic world, “doubts” are punishable, “wonderings and wanderings” are simply a waste of time, “dreamers” are dangerous, “skepticism” keeps you free from dinner invitations.

If you’ve read my complete incomplete two-some list then I apologize for it being incomplete.
Oh, wait! Did I say write, “Incomplete?”

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Life’s Sacramentals

Posted on March 9, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

Every week we gather around our parish altars. We place on the eucharistic table bread and wine as our offering to God, who consecrates them and returns them to us as the body and blood of his beloved Son. But imagine a bigger table, an altar on which is placed not just the eucharistic elements, but the means of realizing mercy, compassion, justice, forgiveness in our lives.

Imagine placing next to the paten and chalice your favorite casserole dish, the one you use to prepare suppers for neighbors experiencing crisis or hardship. Set on the parish altar the book you read to your child every night, during those special moments of quiet grace. Include in your offering all the stuff of family life: the keys to the family van, the basketball you and your kids shoot hoops with after supper. Add to these gifts the smartphone you put aside when a friend needs to talk, the yarn you use to knit shawls for the parish prayer shawl ministry, the snow shovel you use to clean your elderly neighbor’s walk.

All these gifts are sacramental; they reveal God in our midst.

As the scribe in today’s Gospel says: God seeks no greater gift from us than our bringing God’s mercy to others. To embrace others in love as God embraces us is the heart of discipleship. With our eucharistic offerings, God accepts our most ordinary acts of mercy, our tools of reconciliation, our humble efforts to heal and reconcile. God accepts them and returns them as grace, blessing, and hope.

May we become what we offer at our altars: the embodiment of God’s mercy and peace, the vision of God’s compassion and justice to heal and lift up the broken, the fallen, the lost.

Deacon Jay Cormier

Jay Cormier, a deacon serving in the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, teaches at Saint Anselm College and Pope John XXIII National Seminary. He is author of The Deacon’s Ministry of the Word and editor and publisher of Connections.

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Funeral Sermon for Truck Driver with a Sense of Humor

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

(“I Know What God Is,” Perry Como, YouTube)

A miserable-looking guy is sitting at a bar one evening, intently staring at his drink. He’s been like that for over an hour.

Suddenly this big, trouble-making truck driver walks up to him, takes the guy’s drink from the bar, and drinks it all down in one gulp. The sad guy starts to cry.

The truck driver is a bit off-put by this and says to him, “Come on man, I was only joking. Here, I’ll buy you another drink. I can’t stand to see a grown man cry.”

The sad guy sobs, “No, it’s not that. This is the worst day of my life. First, I fall asleep after the alarm goes off and I’m late for work and my boss fires me. Then when I leave the office, my car was stolen. The cops said there’s nothing they can do. So I have to get a cab home. After it drives off I realize I’ve left my wallet and credit cards in it. So I walk into my house only to find my wife in bed with the mailman. I walked right out and came straight here. And, just when I’m thinking about ending my miserable, sad life, you show up and drink my arsenic.”

________________________________

It’s the mystery of life that we celebrate today. Not only Hal’s but each of our lives lived, so very often, within life’s contradictions. Scripture bounces us back and forth between birth/death, planting/harvesting, easily killing/difficult to find healing. And, that’s only Scripture’s first listing, there always seems to be more waiting between the wings of our births and deaths.

The best part of humor is taking the obvious and finding its opposite. It catches people off guard until it sinks in and laughter follows. I’m told that Hal had that gift. And a true gift it is when properly executed. The joke at the beginning, I found on the internet, after ignoring the site that offered “dirty truck driver jokes.”

Hal’s sense of humor may have entertained family and friends but, more importantly, it definitely had to assist him through life’s crying/laughing, grieves and dances.

Beyond a doubt, one of the greatest standup comedians is the one we turn to throughout all of life’s times. It’s not Jerry Seinfeld, it’s Jesus Christ. “A mustard seed becomes the greatest of plants?” (pause for laughter) “My good friend Lazarus is dead?” Yeah, right.

Scripture’s list continues. Time for searching but then faithfully and trust quit searching and live life as fully as you can. That time for keeping? That leads toward those necessary times for letting go.

“Ecclesiastes” was written by the good king Solomon. A man of quick wit. “Song of Songs,” his first act is full of natural sexual urges attempting to describe his relationship to God and his own personal faith. “Wisdom” is his adult scholarly work, full of heavy advice and counsel to show off his intelligence. Act three from the good king is the one we heard this morning where he goes on to say that life is really all about nothing; like Jerry’s TV show. Solomon says that life is “like chasing after wind.” Good luck with that.

People living without this gift of faith have got to be the most boring, stoic folks on the planet. Never, ever recognizing that all those contradictions solely lead to the faith’s anchor, faith’s perspective, and faith’s foundation. All of them provide us believers with those Holy Spirit Gifts of fortitude, patience, wonder, perseverance, and many, many others. That’s no laughing matter. Embracing life’s contradictions is not only living life fully but it is also the fullness of our faith.

Well, it is a laughing matter but it’s life’s serious undergirding. We’d all agree about that when thinking, remembering, and praying about Hal’s life.

The stupidity of the cross is our redeeming salvation? A piece of bread and a sip of wine bring us closer to Jesus, the Christ? A Jew yearning to eat the food of pigs? (Pause for laughter.) How about feeding five thousand men with meager fish and bread? And what about the women and children who went hungry that hot sunny day? (Pause for laughter.)

May God welcome Hal as God has welcomed all of those folly followers who were full of wisdom, insights, and understanding. All anchored in our beautiful Catholic/Christian faith.

Love/hate, war/peace, speaking/and a time to quit speaking. I guess that’s my cue.

(“Pabst Blue Ribbon” jingle, YouTube)

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Lent, Sunday Four, “B”

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

“Today’s New Testament readings regale us with that most fundamental of Christian convictions, that we have been loved into existence by a God whose very being is Love overflowing. St. Paul reminds us that ‘God is rich in mercy, because of the great love he [has] for us.’

…I experienced (anew) God’s outrageous love when I became a grandparent last year. When visiting my new grandchild, Elliot, I saw again the power of love at its most elemental.

As I watched my sleep-deprived daughter-in-law selflessly nursing little Elliot, the Gospel refrain echoed anew . . . for God so loved the world.

As I witnessed my son swaying with Elliot in his arms, gently crooning a lullaby . . . for God so loved the world.

As I gazed with wonder into his cherubic visage and held him close . . . for God so loved the world.

This is our God, drawing us into the Father’s divine bosom, bearing us up in Love everlasting.”

———————————

A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians 2:4-10

Brothers and sisters: God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ—by grace you have been saved—, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

The word of the Lord.

Richard R. Gaillardetz was the Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology at Boston College and the author of numerous books, including By What Authority? Rick died peacefully at home on November 7, 2023, surrounded by his family.

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Lent, Third Sunday, “B”

Posted on February 27, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

“We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to many.

Suffering sometimes seems unbearable. For Christians, the cross can make us very uncomfortable; it makes the temptation to “hide from suffering” more difficult. The cross reminds us that suffering is. It happens. It is part of life, and there is no getting around it. The only true spiritual path is the one that passes through suffering. By looking at the cross (sometimes it feels more like the cross is staring into us), we are given the courage to face our suffering and the suffering of others. . . .

Many years ago, one of my Dominican brothers, Fr. Jim Campbell, OP, was sitting in a Zen-Christian meditation hall in Japan, trying to [meditate] while suffering from excruciating back pain, for which he ultimately underwent surgery. Feeling he could go on no longer, he was about to abandon the practice when he glanced up and saw a small wooden cross on the wall. He said years later, “It all made sense—the cross, the pain, the promise of liberation. I knew then why I was a Christian.”

. . . [F]or many Christians down through the centuries, the cross has served as a kind of gentle mirror that helps us to see our sufferings and to touch them—not in a way that overwhelms us and leaves us feeling abandoned—but a seeing and touching that happen in and through and with our teacher, Jesus. By “watching him” embrace his suffering with patience and love, we see the path by which we too can journey forward.”

written by Fr. Brian J. Pierce, “We Walk the Path Together”

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Life’s Mountains, (2nd Lent Sunday, “B”)

Posted on February 23, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

(based on the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ)

Jesus climbs his way up along with his climbing companions to illustrate for them the union of his life. The union with Elijah and Moses is second only to hearing his Father’s voice simply telling those companions and to the world, “Listen to him.”

No wonder those guys “trembled.” No wonder Peter wanted pitched tents to spend the rest of their lives on that mountain called Tabor. Is it any wonder that we wish to tent ourselves around significant moments in our lives. To hold on to them as though time stops. But it’s midnight now and the place you rented for your special occasion comes to an end. The guests left, the workers want to clean up and return to their homes and you and your family need to come down from that mountain. It’s now Monday and the new work week begins.

Memories details may fade but the feelings and sentiment cement themselves as life continues, even and especially through life’s other mountain, Golgotha.

The Tabor that acknowledges Jesus as the Christ is on the way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the Christ purpose for living. Our Jerusalem is our living daily in Christ-like manners and behaviors. The extraordinaries make the ordinary purposeful and full of meaning. Our Tabors make our inevitable Golgotha’s bearable.

Joy and grief are separated by three letters. Happiness and sadness have that same simple separation. A Christ moment can be the union of those two supposedly opposite mountains, because both embody life; life here and the eternal one.

One mountain faithfully carries us through life and the other mountain? The other mountain completes it.

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A Lonely Lent?

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

“A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 9:14-15

When the bridegroom is taken from them, then they will fast.The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

The Gospel of the Lord.”

The sold out concert crowd quickly jumps up, cheering, and howls loudly for a one last song at the concert’s end, or as expected, at least a final bow. Nada.

His bodyguards and manger, as quickly as the crowd’s responses, hurries him through the long dark underground tunnels, holding him through every twists and turns.

He looks tired but still in costume. Limo door is opened and he’s clumsily placed into the backseat.

Bodyguard closes the door, taps the car hood twice and says, “Elvis has left the building.”

Welcome to the sacred season of Lent.

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Fifth Sunday, Cycle B or “The Doctor’s Visit”

Posted on February 3, 2024 by Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.

The medical machine has cranked out its complicated tests and measurements. It’s taken many weeks and as you await that dreaded doctor’s visit with “the news” about your health as if all the local television stations with bright lights are stationed outside now waiting for your responses.

If cameras were awaiting you outside after that visit, the words of Job might just naturally pop into your head. “So, I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me.” Eager question from a reporter brings you to say more Job words,” When shall I arise? then the night drags on, I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.”

That doctor’s visit offered you overdoses of cute, positive platitudes about your condition (that’s been said countless times before), along with your possible prescription doses for the remainder of your life, along with your survival percentages (that rarely reach 50), Again, cue Job, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” (Job’s words, yours may be crispier) Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.”

The TV cameras have left, the doctor went home and you go home. Perhaps alone, perhaps with others but not wishing to talk. Not wishing to talk? What a wonderful beginning of prayer. In the silence of your silence, God is able to soften those “p’s” of platitudes, prescriptions and percentages to strengthen you with David’s Psalm words of, ‘the brokenhearted experiences healing, wounds are bound up and raised into heavenly grace; forget the amount number of stars occupying the sky, no one knows how many but please know that your name is important.’

Jesus has his say from St. Mark by telling us that “He cured many many who were sick with various diseases, and drove out many demons.” Cured? Cured? Healing? Healing?

You prayerfully pray before the scheduled surgery. Putting yourself aside and like St. Paul declaring in similar words, ‘I have been entrusted with a stewardship. I have a recompence, I have a payment – free of charge-by offering myself and living the gospel to make full use of my right in the gospel.’

Medical predictions? Percentages, weighing the odds like vacationing in Las Vegas?

Faith? Unlimited in the wonder, unknowns, and most importantly the awesome mystery and complete peace and trust in God.

Scripture Readings for the “Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time”

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020424.cfmhttps://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020424.cfm

Check out books by Fr. Joe Jagodensky, SDS on Amazon.com

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