A Homily for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

HOMILY FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

In the Gospels, Jesus preaches that the Kingdom of God is in the here and now. In the fourth verse of Marty Haugen’s hymn, “Gather Us In”, is this marvelous verse. “Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away; but, here in this space a new light is dawning. Now is the Kingdom, now is the day! Gather us in and hold us forever. Gather us in, and make us your own. Gather us in, all people’s together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.” This verse expresses very well that the Kingdom of God is all around us. In fact, as Marty so poetically states it, the Kingdom of God is so present, it permeates even our flesh and our bone.

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes expresses the same thing. “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.” The author then lists those times. There is a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot the plant, a time mourn and a time to dance, and so on. The author then concludes, that God has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless in our hearts, without us ever discovering, from beginning to end the work God has done. Mysteriously, we live unaware of the timelessness God has planted in our hearts. Nevertheless, all of our lives are an integral part of the Kingdom of God.

This mystery is expressed in the parables Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom of God. When seeds are planted, the mystery of the seed sprouting and growing happens outside of our control. Jesus also describes the mystery of the Kingdom of God as something that starts as simple as a mustard seed which then grows into a huge, marvelous plant in which the birds and other animals find shelter and home. The Kingdom of God is far greater than our insignificant selves.
I remember the birth of my first child. In the delivery room, I dutifully took my position up by Ruthie’s head to give her words of encouragement. The doctor looked at me and asked, “Do you faint at the sight of blood?” I replied, no. He then said, “There is nothing you can say that will help her. Get behind me and watch your child be born!” The doctor was sitting on a stool and I stood behind him, much like an umpire stands behind a catcher to call balls and strikes, and I watched my first child be born. The presence of God filled the delivery room and I remember the feeling that if I had stretched out my arm in the space, I would touch the face of God. I fully realized at that moment how far greater God was than my insignificant self.

On this weekend we celebrate the vocation of fathering. All of us who have done parenting are well aware of the great mystery that takes place in raising children. We assist in the creation of a new life, and nurture that life along the way of becoming an adult. As we watch our children grow physically, mentally, and emotionally into adulthood, we see the mystery of God’s Kingdom unfold in their lives. We witness their individual joys and their sufferings in their times of planting and reaping, mourning and dancing, their times of love and hate. We do our best to assist them and accompany them through all of these times never fully knowing the mystery of the Kingdom of God being played out in their lives, and, being played out in our lives, too, for in assisting our children, we continue to grow into the mystery of God’s Kingdom.

Jesus assures us that like that mustard seed that grows into a huge plant, in which all life finds shelter, we, too, will find shelter and care in God’s Kingdom. We were born from the mystery of God’s Kingdom, we live and we grow in the mystery of God’s Kingdom, and when we die we are embraced fully into the mystery of God’s Kingdom. We will never fully understand the mystery of God’s Kingdom, but we are called to trust in that mystery and assist the growth of that mystery in our lives, in the lives of all people we love, and in our world. As the author of Ecclesiastes so aptly states, “God has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into our hearts, without us ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.”

There is a time to live and a time to die, a time for humilty and a time for shameless self-promotion

As the author of the book of Ecclesiastes points out, there is a time for everything. I believe this is a time for a little self-promotion, musically.

For the past 48 years, I have been busy composing music.  As a classically trained musician, what I compose sounds and is classical or liturgical music. This being said, I am not a musical snob. I grew up with the folk music movement in the 60’s, and am very much in love with folk music, international folk music,  jazz, the blues, the many different facets of rock and so on. I play guitar, 5 string banjo, as well as piano. The only standard I place on these many facets of music is that they are played well. They are played “musically.”

For the past three years, I have been transcribing all the handwritten scores of music I have composed from 1970 to the present to a digital format. After a devastating car accident in 2002, I quit composing for a number of years because the injuries I sustained prevented me from performing as I had prior to the accident. I have since overcome that hesitancy and have gone back to composing music again.

All the piano music I have composed is now published through CD Baby and can be bought digitally (I am working on the CD part of this presently) on iTunes or Amazon Music or the CD Baby site. There are 8 collections, or opuses, of music, generally, anywhere from 8 to 12 songs per album. To listen to the music beginning with Opus 1 from the early 70’s to Opus 9, which I have just completed composing is to hear an aural history of compositional development. In the 70’s I was experimenting with the different facets of musical periods of Classical music, from baroque to romantic, to impressionistic, to modern, to serial music. Over the years, I have developed my own style of composition. If I were pressed as to what album is my best effort, I would say probably Opus3, the Christmas Psalm Offerings, or Opus 7, the Lamentation Psalm Offerings. They are not what I would call “whistleable” tunes, and are a bit more abstract, at times dissonant. However, they would be my more creative works.

On the other hand, Opus 2, Opus 4, Opus 6, Opus 8 and the recently composed Opus 9, would have the more mass appeal to people.

I would describe the music as meditative. With the exception of two of the songs, most range from 2 1/2 minutes to about 5 minutes in length.

If you are interested in hearing the music you can get samples at either iTunes or Amazon. They should also be on some of the streaming music networks like Spotify, as well. Look for music composed by Robert Charles Wagner (in classical music you need to sound more formal e.g. Johann Sebastian Bach. Ludwig Von Beethoven and so forth.) I believe they are also on uTube, as well.

links to the music are as follows:

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner2

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner3

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner4

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner5

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner6

http://store.cdbaby.com/cd/robertcharleswagner7

And Jesus went off to quiet place to pray … the need for vacation.

I am coming off 5 days of vacation. I don’t know about you, but it takes me at least 2 days to shake off the work mode and begin to relax. I really needed this time away from ministry, this year. It has been a very long and gruelling 9 months of ministry. The root of the word “recreation” is the word “recreate”. We all need some to time to “recreate” ourselves. I was certainly in need of some “re-creation.”

Doing ministry in the Church truly requires one to take a break. It matters not if one is ordained or if one is laity, working in the Church takes its toll. The burn-out rate is high in ministry. Being on call to the needs of people who are often in places of desperation requires a lot of spiritual, emotional, and physical energy. I have found that to go for long periods of time without “getting away” or taking some “time out” is detrimental to ministry. It is absolutely necessary to take time off in order to do good ministry in the Church.

I am reflecting on this because I know that 5 days ago, my energy levels were very depleted. Could I still respond if called upon to minister to someone? Of course, but it would have been done with some internal resentment and anger … not a good way to approach someone who is in need of love and care.

The gospels tell us that Jesus was very aware of his own need to “get away” and restore his energy to minister to people. He would go off to some isolated mountain top to pray, often times, not telling his disciples where he was going. He would just “get lost.” Not knowing where he took off to, the disciples would have to go out and search for him.

This is an important lesson for all of us in ministry. When the needs of the people to whom we minister begin to mount up and overwhelm us, we need to do what Jesus did, and “get lost” for a little while. We need to do this so that we can be fully present to the people who rely on us and to serve them well.

On September 9th of this year, I will completed 41 years of ministry will begin my 42nd. year of full-time ministry in the church, the first 17 years as a lay church minister, and the remaining 24 years as an ordained deacon. After all these years, I still don’t take all 4 weeks of vacation to which I am entitled every year … I am lucky to take 2 weeks of vacation. However, I see an increasing need for some time to “get lost” as I age.

Of course, the method by which we “get lost” is important. “Getting lost” in abusing alcohol or other substances is not an option (though, after one of “those days” it sounds a wee bit alluring). I recommend doing what Ruthie and I did these past several days. Drive up to Duluth. Get a room at the Radisson. Spend a lot of time in the hotel hot tub and swimming pool letting the tensions gradually fall away. Go up to the JJ Astor restaurant overlooking Duluth and nurse a cocktail and eat a very fine, albeit expensive supper, as the restaurant revolves and you get a 365 degree view of Duluth. It may not be the mountain top to which Jesus use to escape, but it is still a mighty fine way to find “re-creation”.

 

The Devil Made Me Do It – a reflection on the 10th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B

Why there is evil in our world? Greek mythology blames Pandora for opening up “the box”. The Judeo-Christian tradition lays the blame on Adam and Eve. Flip Wilson’s comedic character, Geraldine, use to say, “The devil made me do it!” In the story of Adam and Eve, the serpent (personifying evil) didn’t make Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit. The serpent told them that in eating the fruit, they would become Gods. Adam and Eve chose to eat the fruit, and, boy, did that plan backfire on them! We have within our own DNA, the genes of our first parents. We want to become Gods, and, as a result, we commit sin.

Breaking things down to their most elemental state, scripture tells us that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Mixed within our DNA is not only that of our ancestors, but the DNA of God. God’s presence resides in all of us. The sins we commit against another person, we commit against God. When we tell someone a lie, we lie to God. If we cheat, or steal from another person, we cheat or steal from God. St Paul writes in the 2nd reading that as we get closer to death, we begin to see with our eyes that which is truly real and discover that everything we have seen up to that point has been not real. Imagine for a moment we are given the eyesight to see the presence of God in all human beings. How could we ever cheat or steal of even think of causing violence, much less kill another person, knowing and seeing God’s presence in that person?

To remedy the sinful flaw in our nature, Jesus appeals to God’s presence within us, telling us to “love one another as I have loved you.” “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?” “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.” “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. We must appeal to God’s presence within us as we interact with the presence of God in others. The Divine DNA of God within us is the anecdote to the DNA of Adam and Eve within us. The more we see and react to God’s presence in others, AND the presence of God within us, the less sin we will commit, and the more peace we will know in our lives.

Reflection on the Trinity for Trinity Sunday, Year B

Trinity Sunday was a few weeks ago … but I have been busy. For whatever it is worth, here is my reflection on the Trinitarian nature of God. Ruthie went to the Saturday evening, 5 pm Mass on that weekend. If you recall, it was beastly hot, 100 degrees and the humidity was tropical. Fr George Grafsky was presiding that evening at St Wenceslaus and his homily was imply this. “Read Deacon Bob’s reflection in the bulletin. It is the best understanding of the Trinity I have read.” When Ruthie told me what Fr George had said, I was both flattered and a little shaken-up, simply because I don’t think I, along with most theologians alive or canonized have ever gotten an adequate grasp of this great Divine Mystery (though it is nice to stand in the shadows of most of these theologians). Here is the article I wrote:

Trinity Sunday, a day when many homilies border on heresy. We know more about the atmosphere on a faraway planet, like Mars or Jupiter, than that which we know about the Trinitarian nature of God.

In my grad school days at the St Paul Seminary, I had a number of classes taught by theologians. When they would speak, it was as if their minds were able to draw knowledge from spiritual dimensions in otherworldly planes of existence not generally accessible to most of us day to day people. I would ask them a question, and there would be a pause as they searched these other dimensions of knowledge before answering. I remember attempting to read the great Catholic theologian, Fr Karl Rahner’s definition on the “Economic Trinity.” Rahner was a German theologian and he wrote in the German language. It is true that what is expressed in one language is not always directly translatable in another. Case in point, what Rahner wrote in German about the Economic Trinity was very difficult to understand in English. I attempted many times to understand his definition of the Economic Trinity (Note: the Economic Trinity is not a Walmart special, 3 natures of God for the price of one) but to no avail.

So here is my, hopefully, non-heretical, non-understanding of the Trinitarian nature of God. In the Hebrew Testament, we hear about a one, powerful God who breathes upon the waters of the abyss and life was created. The Hebrew Testament writers call the breath of God, Ruah, that is, the Spirit of God. God’s voice speaks to and through the prophets to the people of Israel. The writers of the Hebrew Testament call God’s voice, the Logos or God’s Word. In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, the Word of God is identified as Jesus, God incarnate. Just as in our human body, our breath and our voice are inseparable and one with our body, so the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, and Jesus, the Word of God, are in separable and one in God. The bottom line is this. Jesus taught that God is a Trinity, one God and three natures: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If that is good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for us.

MEMORIAL DAY 2018 (REMEMBERING BULL RUN)

This poem is a meditation on war. Unless we have lost a loved one in combat, war is a spectator sport for many Americans. It is reminiscent of the first battle of the Civil War, Bull Run. The gentry from Washington D.C. ate picnics overlooking the battle field. They largely believed the Union Army would defeat the Confederate Army soundly, thus ending the Civil War in one decisive battle. I wonder if they choked on their food and drink as they observed the carnage of the battle, and watched their Union Army completely eviscerated by the Confederate Army, gathering up the remains of their picnic or perhaps emptying what they had eaten on the ground before running for their own lives, as the Confederate Army was poised outside of the nation’s capital?

We still love the carnage of war, unless of course, it affects us directly. With the exception of Spielberg, much of war is still just glorified entertainment. Whether it be movies, or television, computer generated games and so on, we picnic as we watch the carnage on our screens entertain us. It is only when someone enters our homes, or  our school, our theater, our shopping mall, our concert site with a weapon of war and opens it up on us that we suddenly experience that which many in the military have experience. Let us remember in prayer those who have died in battle, not only in war, but in the war that is raging about us in our classrooms, our cities, our neighborhoods and in our homes.

MEMORIAL DAY 2018 (REMEMBERING BULL RUN)

War.
A spectator sport.
The gentry of Bull Run
settling on hills
overlooking battlefields,
picnic baskets opened,
food and drink consumed
while watching the poor
slaughter each other on
the ground beneath them.
Those feasting on the hills above
have little at risk, perhaps
making huge profits
at the expense of those
whose bodies are eviscerated by
gunfire, human litter of
entrails and limbs
scattered over the ground
of the playing field,
painted in the color of death.

One year later.
Ground once teeming with life
now teeming with death,
bones of horse and men
still unburied, still exposed
to the human eye,
bleached by the sunlight,
stepped upon by soldiers’ feet
advancing across the same
field only to add their
limbs, their eviscerated bodies
like ragdolls, scattered
across the ground,
their bones piled upon
the bones of their ancestors.
What were they thinking
as they entered into combat,
to be one moment living, breathing,
only to awaken in the darkness
far beneath the ground?

We still play with human lives,
war glorified gaming by
chicken hawks occupying
high places in government posts.
We still eat our picnics
entertained by the death
of others, whether in a
movie theater, on television,
on a computer screen,
watching human beings
slaughter each other
for our own amusement.
Safely watching the slaughter
unless someone with an AR-15
enters our theater, our living
room, our study, and
we discover that our own
bodies are not immune
to the bullets
that scatter our limbs,
our entrails about
our blood painting the
floor, walls and ceiling
in death’s color.
We join our lives to
those lives with which
we played, to find
ourselves alive for a moment
suddenly entering into darkness
the ground piled above our heads,
awaiting the Second Coming.

© 2018, Robert Charles Wagner

HOMILY FOR PENTECOST

I remember when my son, Luke, received the sacrament of Confirmation. His Confirmation Mass was at St Wenceslaus on a Sunday afternoon. The bishop called for all the Confirmation candidates to stand. He then extended his hands over them and called upon the Holy Spirit to come down upon the Confirmation candidates. At that precise moment, something began swooping over the heads of the Confirmation candidates. It wasn’t a dove, nor some bird that somehow got trapped in church. It was a bat making this great swooping arc from the choir loft over the heads of the kids, turning around in the sanctuary, flying back up to the choir loft and then swooping down again. The kids didn’t know whether  to stand , duck, run or cry. Eventually, the ushers using the collection baskets chased the bat into the west stairwell and closed the door. I thought it was both ironic and amusing. Not all shared my sentiments. But the one thing we could agree on was that it was surprising. Surprising is a good feeling word for what the apostles experienced that Pentecost Sunday so many centuries ago.

We hear Jesus tell the apostles in the Gospel today, “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” This Gospel is taken from the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel. This is Jesus’ last teaching to the apostles before his arrest, his torture, and his execution on the cross. Jesus knows that the events that are about to happen will shake the apostles to the very core and that much he could reveal to them would be forgotten by the terror they would experience over the next several days. Jesus reassures them that in spite of all that will happen, in the end, everything will turn out well. When the time is right, the Holy Spirit will come to them and they will understand why Jesus had to suffer and die. Everything will be made right and whole again in the Resurrection of Jesus.

What was true for the apostles is true for us, too. Our whole lives are not revealed to us at our birth. We could never be able to take all that knowledge in at one time. We need to be surprised. When I wass 22 years of age, I married Ruthie, and thought that the rest of my life would be spent as a music educator, composing music, living in destitution and being buried in a pauper’s grave. Had I known that I would be doing what I am doing right now, I might have suggested someone take me out in the yard and put me out of my misery. As we all know our lives unfold and surprises happen along the way. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are guided and gradually come to know that which we are suppose to do in our lives. We gradually learn the gifts the Holy Spirit has bestowed upon us and how those gifts can benefit the lives of others. The Holy Spirit uses the failures in our lives to help guide us along the path we have been called by God to take. Not all surprises are fun. Some are painful. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we can even begin to understand the suffering we have in our own lives. I have told this story before. After a serious head-on collision on highway 21, I found myself in the trauma unit at North Memorial Hospital. I remember Fr Steve Ulrick, the pastor of St Hubert, visiting me. I had gotten out of surgery and had all sorts of tubes and electrical leads going in and out of me. Steve looked at me and said, “So, where is the grace?” My first inclination, punch him in the nose. I replied that I had no clue as to where the grace was but would eventually find out. That was true a statement. I knew that over the next 18 months as I recovered from that car accident the Holy Spirit would reveal much I had needed to learn from that car accident and the suffering that accompanied it.

You see, we just don’t encounter the Holy Spirit in the sacraments or those “churchy” moments in our lives. We are in the presence of the Holy Spirit at all times. We move, live and have our being in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all around us, above, below, and within us. And so we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.”

REFLECTION FOR PENTECOST

Of all the images used for the Holy Spirit, the most profound image for me is that of the “breath of God.” Ruah is the Hebraic word for the breath of God. In the very beginning, God breathed upon the waters of the abyss, and life came forth. In Ezekial 37, the prophet sees a valley filled with the dead bones of an army. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. As the prophet does so, the bones reconnect and sinew, muscle, and flesh form on the bones. Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the breath, as the prophet does so, the breath of God present in the four winds descends upon the valley and reanimates the dead bodies of the army. God’s breath flows through all of creation animating the life in all living creatures, plants, in our soil, our water, our air, and has left its imprint on the mighty geography of our planet.

We like to compartmentalize our lives into “church/religion” on Sunday, and then the rest of our time outside of church away from God. When we reimage the Holy Spirit as God’s breath we cannot separate ourselves from God, for God is present in the very air around us which we breathe into our lungs. There is no away time from God for God is everywhere. We exist because God wills it, and our very existence is within in God. To try to exist outside of God would bring about instantaneous physical and spiritual death. Present-day humanity that prides itself on being self-reliant, self-made and beholding to nobody but itself does not want to hear this truth. Without God’s breath, our bodies are nothing but a heap of dead, dry bones. We are totally and completely reliant on God.

On Pentecost, the mighty wind of God’s breath blew through the city of Jerusalem into the people of that Upper Room. They went forth from that room and with the power of that Divine Breath, utterly changed humanity. All of humanity’s wisdom and knowledge, scientific breakthroughs, art, music, poetry, literature, all things good come to us in the Holy Spirit, the Divine Breath of God. On this Solemnity of the Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit, the Divine Breath of God, stir within our bodies, minds, and souls an equal zeal to go forth and change the world.

For the children and teachers massacred yesterday in Santa Fe, Texas. Psalm Offering 3 Opus 9

This Psalm Offering was composed for the victims of the Parkland High School massacre on Valentine’s Day this year. It is offered up as a prayer for those massacred at the high school in Santa Fe, Texas yesterday.

(c) 2018, Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.

For Trish Flannigan: Psalm Offering 10 Opus 5 – Abba, Yeshua, Ruah

PSALM OFFERING 10 OPUS 5 – Abba, Yeshua, Ruah (For Trish Flannigan)

This music, along with all of Opus 5, was composed during the Spring and Summer of 1994. Psalm Offerings 1 through 8 from this Opus were composed as gifts to my ordination brothers and sisters, Psalm Offering 9 was composed as a gift to Dr. Dolore Rockers OSF, and Abba, Yeshua, Ruah was composed for the ordination Mass and dedicated to Trish Flannigan, the “10th member” of my ordination class. Trish was the administrative secretary for Diaconal Formation and the Deacon Council of the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis. She is one of the most remarkable women I have known in my life. The institutional Church has a way of devaluing and using employees, and, sadly, Trish ended up being harshly treated by the Archdiocese. Instead of rewarding her for all her hard work and care she devoted to the diaconate, she was pretty much cast aside by Archbishop Flynn, and for peace of mind, heart and soul, left the ministry she loved.

The original version of this Psalm Offering was a choral hymn for 4 part choir and soloist, and was sung at the Preparation of the Gifts during the ordination Mass by a large “festival” choir comprised of many men and women from the parishes of the deacons being ordained, and under the direction of Dan Westmoreland. What is presented here is the hymn “recomposed or revoiced” for piano. What differentiates this version from the choral piece is the bridge that separates the three verses, and closes the piece as a Coda.

This adaptation was not as easy as one might think. What may work for voice, does not always translate well into instrumental piano. The text of the verses greatly enhance the vocal version. Without the text, it required much effort and thought to have just melody express the religious content of the original. What you hear is my best effort in doing this.

Abba, Yeshua, Ruah are the Aramaic and Hebraic words for Father, Jesus, Spirit, respectively. The use of the words, albeit in a foreign language, was my attempt to make the text express the true nature of the Trinity without the usual gender assignments we use in the English language,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is the text for the hymn:

Abba, Abba.
May we be dwellings of Your holy love,
the love which You grace all below, above.
May we be dwellings of Your holy peace,
the peace for which all souls search and seek.
You loved so much that You sent Your Son.
Only in You can we leave as one.
Dwell in us Abba, so that all may feel
the touch of Your love and your peace-filled will.

Yeshua, Yeshua.
May we be servants of you, Eternal Word,
servants of you, Compassionate Word.
O may we seek you among the very least,
inviting all to our Abba’s feast.
You loved so much that You gave Your life.
You conquered our death so that we may rise.
O loving Jesus, may our bodies be,
Your living body for all to see.

Ruah, Ruah.
O Holy Spirit, come and make us whole,
enflame our hearts, our minds, our souls.
Inspire our actions, our fears relieve
so we may give to others what we’ve received.
Vessel of hope on our world outpoured.
Your healing breath our lives restore.
Infuse our lives now with your holy gifts
So in You, source of love, we may always live.

Abba, Yeshua, Ruah.

(c) 1994 and 2018, Robert Charles Wagner OFS. All rights reserved.